Trouble Maker
by omnomasaur
Summary: The new transfer student at Konoha's Fire Academy is making both friends and enemies her first week, but she isn't exactly a brand new face around here. Watch out, Konoha, Haruno Sakura's back!
1. Saints and Sailors

Summary: The new transfer student at Konoha's Fire Academy is making both friends and enemies her first week, but she isn't exactly a brand new face around here. Watch out, Konoha, Haruno Sakura's back!

* * *

Chapter 1: Saints and Sailors  
_Waiting here with hopes the phone will ring  
And I'm thinking awful things  
And I'm pretty sure that few would notice  
And this apartment  
Is starving for an argument  
Anything at all to break the silence_

* * *

Twelve Years Ago

**2000 April 12**

A little girl with a head of pink sat in the passenger seat of her mother's car with her hands and face pressed up against the window. Just a few feet away stood a little boy with a head of red clutching onto their father's hand with his left hand and her pink and white rabbit in his right. They both wore sad expressions while their mother looked out over her shoulder, waiting for traffic to pass by so she could pull out, and their father had his head down and his eyes closed.

As the car began to move, the boy took a step forward, seemingly wanting to run after the car, but was held back by his father's grip. At the same time, the girl fisted her hand and grabbed the boy's brown and red scorpion, never losing sight of the little boy as the car drove away.

The little girl's mother and father had gotten a divorce a couple days ago after her mother had gotten sick and tired of his verbal abuse and drunken nights. He was a corporate lawyer and had many stressful and alcohol-filled nights, never being able to ignore its allure. Sure, he would apologize the night after when he was sober and was ashamed of what he would do or say, but she couldn't take it anymore. He even started staying at a motel on some nights to avoid the accusation in her eyes, the fear and confusion in his children's eyes, and the shame reflected in the mirror by his own eyes. Eventually, the two agreed to a divorce and began fighting for custody of their children.

She argued that she was better fit to raise their children since she was their mother and could provide a stable and safe environment for them. He argued that he was better suited to raise them since he was the one to earn an income in the family and that she couldn't very well raise two kids on whatever was left in her savings account. After a month of their battle, the judge saw that a boy would be better raised by his father and a girl would be better raised by her mother and so ruled for Sakura to be with her mother and for Sasori to be with his father with him providing some money to her to raise Sakura. With this, the two parents and the two siblings were separated.

The two would keep in touch for the next couple of years when their parents would call the other for a birthday or Christmas before they could operate the technology on their own. Soon they used their cell phones to send messages and pictures, no matter how infrequent, knowing that they still loved each other and were still family, regardless of the distance between them for Sakura only had one brother and Sasori only had one sister. Even though their father would remarry and give Sasori stepsiblings, they could never replace Sakura in Sasori's heart.

* * *

**2003 January 5**

"They're finally here."

"Did you meet them? Are they nice? If they're mean to you, I'll beat them up for you, Sasori!"

Sasori smiled at his sister's words. All three of his stepsiblings were all older and much bigger than Sakura was. She was so adorable sometimes. "I think I can handle myself, imouto."

Their father had met a woman this past year and started a relationship with her, eventually marrying her and now they were going to live together. She had three children from her previous marriage and they… were different from what Sasori had imagined.

He had tried avoiding meeting them the entire time their parents were dating. He didn't want Sakura to think that these kids were going to replace her and he wasn't all that interested in meeting them anyway. The girl, Temari, was older than him by a year. Kankuro and Gaara were a year and two years younger, respectively, than him. The youngest liked to keep to himself, so Sasori didn't think they would have any problems. The girl though… she was so loud and bossy. Kankuro, though, was alright. The boy had taken a liking to his puppets and made him promise to show him how he made them walk across the table.

"Ne, Sasori-nii, I have to go take a bath now. I'll talk to you later! Remember, I'll beat them if you need me to!"

* * *

**2004 November 8**

"Happy birthday, Sasori-nii!"

"Thank you, Sakura-chan."

"Sasori-nii, did you get my card?"

"Yeah, I did. It's really pretty! You musta worked really hard on it."

Sasori looked at the card his sister sent him for his 11th birthday. She drew a giant birthday cake on the front and draw a bunch of balloons in the shape of his face in the background (well, they sort of looked like him with the red hair). Inside, there was a picture of a boy and girl sitting together encased in a pink heart. There was a message written in cursive on the right panel with Sakura wishing him a happy birthday and telling him that she loved him. Both she and their mother signed the card (he knew that Sakura wrote his mother's name for her since she didn't seem to care about him anymore; he tried not to let it bother him) just like they had every year.

"I'm glad you like it, Sasori-nii!"

* * *

**2005 January 23**

"Good morning, niisan!"

"Morning, imouto."

"Hey, what's wrong? You sound sad."

"Karura-san passed away last night…"

"Oh no! What happened to her? How's daddy?"

"She got in a car accident and died before they could get her to the hospital. We're having her funeral in a couple days and… I just needed to talk to you to get my mind off of it."

"Oh, well, let me tell you what happened in school today! There's this boy named Suigetsu in my class and he can be such…"

Sasori just listened to the sound of his sister's voice, not paying attention to what she was actually saying, and his thoughts drifted off to what he didn't want to tell Sakura.

His stepmother had been driving Gaara home after visiting his uncle, her brother, Yashamaru when it happened. It had been Gaara's birthday and she agreed to drive the two hours it would take to visit her brother since Gaara missed him so much. It had been raining heavily and she, having always been a cautious driver, had been driving slower than normal to make sure she and Gaara would be safe.

However, a car from behind decided that she was driving far too slow and tried to overtake her. The road only had two lanes – one for them and one for opposing traffic – and the driver had been stupid enough to forgo checking to see if there was a car in the other lane. When the truck had been heading towards his car, he veered over to the right where his stepmother was and pushed her car off the road and down a river embankment. She didn't make it.

He knew that Gaara blamed himself for it, but he also knew that he, Temari, and Kankuro blamed the other driver, not their little brother. The boy was only 9 and had the boy been a bit more open, he was sure he would've treated Gaara like he would treat Sakura since they were the same age. He could only hope that the boy wouldn't take it too hard on himself.

* * *

**2009 March 28**

"Happy birthday, imouto."

"Hi Sasori! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for the necklace! I waited until today to open it and it's so pretty! I'm going to wear it every single day!"

Sasori smiled at his sister's excitement. He had managed to save enough money after skipping lunch a couple times to buy a necklace for his sister's 13th birthday and he was glad she liked it. It was of a silver dinosaur with their mark engraved on the back. Sakura had come up with the mark a couple years back, deciding that the two siblings needed some sort of cool insignia just for them. It was an S slanted to the right with a black line bisecting it. She had been playing around with the symbol for infinity and wanted to include an S for their names and came up with that. Now it was on virtually everything they gave to each other.

"You don't have to wear it every day, just don't lose it."

"Sasori! Come help me with dinner!" yelled out Sasori's stepsister.

"Ok, hold on! Sorry, Sakura, I have to go. I'll talk to later, ok?"

"Ok, Sasori. Bye!"

* * *

**2010 July 23**

"Hey Sasori! What's happening?"

"Hey imouto. I… I don't know how to tell you, but…"

"Hey, what's wrong? Are you ok? Is everyone ok?"

"No… that's what I need to tell you. Father died."

"…What? No! Are you sure? What happened! How could he have just… no. You're lying, right? It's not true!"

Sasori didn't want to have to be the person to tell Sakura that their father died, a victim of a hit and run. He and the other two people in his car had been found in a ditch, left for dead. As much as he hated his father, he never let Sakura know how bad their father really was. It was better if she still thought of him as the kind, doting father from her childhood.

He knew that his stepsiblings had hated his father following the death of their mother. He… changed somehow. He was no longer kind or loving towards any of them and, honestly, he scared all of them. He usually left him, Temari, and Kankuro alone, singling Gaara out for the brunt of his attacks. It was like how his father had been towards his mother before the divorce, but so much worse.

His father and his lawyer had fought hard to ensure that the man who caused his second wife's death would never step foot into society again, staying in a maximum security prison cell forever. However, once the trial was over, his focus turned to Gaara and he blamed Gaara for her death as well.

He would tell Gaara that he didn't love him, that no one did, not even his mother and that's why she left the world to be rid of him. Sometimes when he so drunk that he would black out, he would turn his verbal assaults into physical ones. It would always happen on nights when Temari and Sasori were gone, sometimes Kankuro too, and Gaara would never say anything, would never tell on their father. Even though his siblings told him that the accident wasn't his fault, he always secretly believed that it was and to hear his stepfather telling him that… he thought he deserved the punishment.

One night, though, Sasori had gotten out of soccer practice early and skipped tutoring because he had hurt his leg in practice. When he got home, he saw Gaara huddled in a corner and his father stood over him, whipping Gaara with his belt. He knew his father was gone, based on the strong stench of alcohol on his father's breath and tried to wrestle his father into his room. When he came back outside to Gaara… it was terrible.

Gaara sat there looking out the window, not caring about the welts on his legs or that Sasori was there looking horrified. Sasori called Temari, told her to come home immediately, and set out to clean out Gaara's wounds. When he tried talking to Gaara to see what he had done to make their father so angry, he found out that this had been going on for at least six months now and no one had known.

Once Temari came home after picking Kankuro up from his club activities, the three of them tried to comfort Gaara and convince him that he, in no way shape or form, deserved this. From then on, they made sure that Gaara was never left alone with their father and Temari swore that after she graduated high school in March, she was moving out and taking them with her.

March finally came around and, true to her word, Temari did move out, but wasn't able to take Gaara with her because, even though she was considered an adult, she had no means of supporting both her and her brother. She went to school for the first term and started working as soon as she could and picked up more hours once summer vacation started. Now, maybe she would have a chance to take Gaara. Maybe Gaara would get a chance to heal.

Sasori had also decided to move out as soon as he could and get a job so he could support himself and Sakura, but didn't think that was possible due to his father's tight hold on the three boys. He had already begun making plans on what to do now that his father was gone to reunite with his sister. He would have to work in secret since he was still a high school student, but he would do it.

He had to.

* * *

**2011 December 25**

"Merry Christmas, Sasori-nii!"

"Merry Christmas, imouto. Did you open your present yet?"

"I did, but this is the first time you've sent money instead of a gift. Did you forget to get me a gift or were you too lazy?"

Sasori could hear the pout in his sister's voice and he let out a chuckle. "No, I did not forget. It's money to rent a truck to bring your stuff to Konoha."

"…Wait, bring my stuff to Konoha? Why would I bring my things there?"

"Because you're moving here to live with me."

"… WHAT? Seriously? Wait, wait, are you being serious? You can't joke about things like that!"

"I'm serious. I have enough money now and I want you to come back and live with me. You can go to high school year once you pass the entrance exam in February and you can go to college with me. You said that you wanted to get into University of Konoha, didn't you? I thought it'd be a good idea for you to transfer here then too."

Sasori knew that Sakura was smart, very smart, and he wanted her to have a chance at a future, one that she wouldn't get in Oto. He had his reservations about the town and wanted Sakura out of there. Hopefully she would feel the same.

"Wow oh my gosh that means I have to start studying now! Wait, how am I gonna get to Konoha to take the test? It's 5 hours away and I don't have a car! They're really going to let me transfer in? Just like that?"

"It's ok, I took care of it. I talked to the headmaster and she agreed to send a test packet to your school and have someone monitor you while you take it. You need to talk to your headmaster and set up the transfer papers though. Does that mean you want to move over here then?"

"Yes! Absolutely yes! Oh my gosh this is so cool. Thank you so much, Sasori-nii! I promise, I'll ace the exam! You just watch! I'll get the highest score!"

Relieved that his sister agreed to his idea, Sasori let himself relax a little and listened to his sister go on about how she was going to study. Finally, she would be back here with him.

"Oh… but what am I going to tell the others? We were planning on finishing high school together…"

Sasori knew of some of Sakura's friends. She was always regaling him with stories of their adventures, though sometimes he felt like she wasn't telling him the entire story when it came to them. She wouldn't even tell him their names. He dismissed it as her desire to have him accept them and so kept the stories as positive as possible.

"I'm sure they will understand. Go talk to them about it."

"Yeah, I'll do that. I'm going to see Kimi and Jiro tomorrow so I'll bring it up then… Anyway, how have you been! I haven't talked to you in so long since you had to study and stuff."

Sasori began telling Sakura of the grueling hours in the library studying for his classes as well as the hours spent in the art rooms finishing his final projects. They spent almost an hour exchanging stories before Sakura left, wanting to pull up study material for the entrance exam.

It had taken Sasori two years and three part-time jobs to earn enough money to support himself and now Sakura. He had been very frugal with his spending, almost as bad as his friend Kakuzu, but now he could afford to bring Sakura back. Sakura was finally coming home.

* * *

**2012 March 28**

"Good morning, niisan!"

"Good morning and happy birthday, imouto. Are you already packed for the drive tomorrow?"

"Yepp I'm pretty much done. The boxes are by the door ready for the U-Haul guy to come pick it up. I can't believe this is my last day here, _and_ I'm finally 16!"

"Ahh I know. I wish you were already back here so we could celebrate together."

"Aw don't worry, niisan, we get to celebrate birthdays and holidays together from now on! This is my last year with my friends and I wanted to celebrate with them. Plus I want to go get my license!"

Sasori smiled at his sister's excitement. He wasn't sure how good (or bad) of a driver she was, but he still wished her good luck on passing her exam.

"Yeah, yeah. Deidara and I will celebrate with you once you're here. Good luck with your test later. Don't run anyone over," Sasori said in all seriousness.

"Mah you're so mean sometimes, niisan!"

* * *

**2012 March 29**

Today was the day. Sasori's sister was moving in today and Deidara wished that the girl would just be here already so that Sasori could stop glaring at the TV and angrily pressing the buttons on the remote. He knew that Sasori was horribly impatient and had a terrible temper on top of it, but seriously, the remote didn't do anything!

"Danna. Can you just pick a channel, yeah? Or give _me_ the remote? You're flipping through them so quickly that my head's starting to hurt, yeah!" Deidara was sitting on one side of the couch wearing a pair of slim denim jeans and a maroon v-neck shirt.

Sasori, wearing a pair of black slim jeans and a black zip-up jacket on top of a plain white shirt, slid his already narrowed eyes over to his roommate who had crossed his arms and started scowling at him.

"You know I don't like to wait."

Deidara just threw his hands up in the air and rolled his eyes. "She's not even late, yeah. She said she wouldn't be here until 2. She still has 20 minutes, yeah."

Sasori ignored his roommate and went back to flipping channels. Deidara, having had enough, let out a heavy sigh and went into the kitchen. Maybe he could fill the time with some food, especially since Sasori stocked the kitchen up in anticipation for his sister's arrival.

As Deidara pulled out the bottle of milk, a bowl, and the box of Cheerios (it is _never_ too late to eat cereal; it is _not_ just breakfast food, yeah!), he began to think of his past year when he first met his roommate. Deidara had met Sasori the previous year in a retreat sponsored by the Hachimure School of Art, one of the colleges at the University of Konoha, over the summer.

The university was divided into nine different schools, each school with its own discipline and focus. There was the Ichimure School of Law, Nimure School of Business, Sanmure School of Architecture, Yonmure School of Social Sciences, Gomure School of Medicine, Rokumure School of Science, Shichimure School of Humanities, Hachimure School of Art, and Kyuumure School of Technology.

The two had met at the retreat where Deidara was a participant and Sasori, being a first year at Hachimure and a participant the previous year, was one of the retreat counselors, so to speak.

The first night, all of the participants were split into different groups and Sasori ended up being Deidara's group leader. Everyone was asked to introduce themselves and share an interesting detail to the group. Deidara, having the belief that true beauty and art could never really be captured and happened only in brief instances, instantly clashed with Sasori, who believed Deidara was an utter fool since art could only truly be called art if could last forever.

The two would be caught in heated debates and discussions over the duration of the retreat, each believing that their definition of art was far superior than the other's definition. Despite only trading insults and criticisms, the two became friends over their differences and their passion for art. When Deidara found out that he been accepted into Hachimure and shared the news with Sasori, the two decided to try to find an apartment to live together since they would be classmates anyway. Luckily, one of their seniors knew the landlord of a nearby apartment building and they managed to secure an apartment for the three of them. _And_ it was easily affordable! He and Sasori decided to share the first room, let Sakura take the second room, and use the third room as a studio of sorts for them to store their supplies. It was a fairly nice arrangement for them and they had just moved in three weeks ago.

He knew that they would continue to butt heads for the rest of their lives, especially now that they shared the same living space, but he looked up to Sasori. The guy was really dedicated to his work, to his "art", and that passion was definitely something Deidara could understand. Plus, Sasori turned out to be a pretty good friend, when he wasn't being impatient or angry, and looked out for Deidara when he could. He made sure to keep Deidara on track when he had to study for the entrance exams to improve his chances of getting accepted. Now, Deidara would try to help both him and his sister. He owed the guy after all and the two sort of knew each other anyway. Turns out Sasori's younger sister and his younger sister had been friends and had been over to his house a couple times before she moved away; now, their older brothers were friends as well. He hadn't heard her say anything about Sakura the last couple years, but he recognized her by her hair when Sasori had shown him a picture.

Just as Deidara finished his cereal and began washing the dishes, he heard Dashboard Confessionals' _Saints and Sailors_ from the living room – Sasori's ringtone for Sakura – and thanked Kami that she was finally here to end Sasori's bad mood.

"Deidara, I'm going downstairs to help her move her stuff in," Sasori called out while pulling on his shoes.

"I'll go help you, yeah."

The two went and took the elevator down from the third floor down to the first. Deidara could only roll his eyes _again_ at how impatient his Danna was. He kept tapping his fingers against his arm and staring at the top of the elevator where the numbers were displayed. When the doors finally opened for the first floor, Sasori bolted into the lobby and out the front doors with Deidara leisurely walking behind him with a smirk on his face.

'_Danna can be so crazy sometimes, yeah._'

As he walked out, he immediately saw Sasori hunched over someone with his arms wrapped tight while standing in front of the U-Haul truck. Stepping closer, Deidara saw Sasori finally letting go of his sister and ruffling her hair, making her laugh and swat at his hand.

"Imouto, I'm glad you're here," Sasori said with a small smile on his face.

Returning the smile, Sakura said, "Me too, niisan. Now, are you gonna help me with all this stuff or am I gonna have to do it myself?"

"You know I will. Deidara came to help us as well."

Sasori stepped back and Deidara got a better look at her. She was wearing a pair of grey shorts with a long mustache print black tank on top, probably only wanting to wear something comfortable for the long ride. She looked good, for being 16 and being related to Sasori-danna. He waved at Sakura and with a grin said, "Took ya long enough, kid."

Sakura rolled her eyes and walked closer to Deidara. "Oh you know how I just _love_ making you guys wait for me," she said and punched Deidara in the arm.

With a pout, Deidara cried, "Ow! Start pulling your punches, yeah, they hurt."

With another laugh, Sakura turned out and waved her hand dismissively at him, "Oh don't be such a baby; it couldn't have been that bad. Now, c'mon, there's a lot of stuff and I'm hungry!"

Sasori shook his head at his sister and friend before glancing at Deidara and motioning with his head over to the truck.

"I got it, yeah. Whatever the princess wants."

* * *

A few hours later, Sakura was laid out haphazardly on her new bed in her new room in her new home. She was _tired_ from the trip and the moving of boxes and the banter with Deidara and her reunion with her brother and her phone constantly going off with messages from her old friends in Oto. She just wanted some peace and time to sleep, but if Sasori had his way, she wouldn't have any of that for a few more hours.

The look on Sasori and Deidara's face when she rolled her motorcycle out of the U-Haul had been _hi_larious. She _did_ tell Sasori that she was taking her driver's test, but he probably thought she had planned on driving a car. A small car. With four doors. And windows. He was so silly sometimes.

She and her friends had obtained money in a… not so proper or legal way for the last two years. She never prostituted herself, sold drugs, or stole from anyone who needed the money, but sometimes the Sound Five would hire themselves out for odd jobs or would steal from other gangs. They lifted cars for dealers sometimes too and eventually she earned enough money to purchase a purple and black Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. Both she and Tayuya had a fetish for these motorcycles and the latter had her own silver bike. They were the girls' babies.

Ah that reminded her that she still needed to check her messages from them. It could wait though, she was just so tired…

Just as she closed her eyes and hoped against hope that maybe the two would leave her alone in here, she heard Deidara call out for her to join them for dinner. Letting out a groan, she got up and maneuvered around the boxes in her room, deciding to leave her phone in her room to get _some_ sort peace. She could get around to the messages later.

When she got closer to the kitchen though, she had to admit whatever was in there smelled _fantastic_ after not eating anything substantial since breakfast and everything that happened today.

She couldn't help the small trail of drool or how wide her eyes became once she saw what was on the table. She knew that Sasori, having lived on his own for the last three years, had to learn how to cook to survive, but she didn't know he was capable of cooking what sat before her now. Maybe it was just the hunger talking, but everything looked simply _divine_ and she wanted to eat _all of it right this instant!_ Those dumplings were just calling out to her to eat!

Sasori had to chuckle at Sakura's expression. It was like she hadn't seen real food in days after being stranded on an island. He only made a couple dishes tonight, not thinking that moving in Sakura's things would take so long and taking up time to cook. He made some dumplings, fried takoyaki, miso soup, and dakon. He didn't have a particular preference as to what to eat, but he hoped that Sakura would like what he prepared.

The three sat down to eat and Sakura kept glancing at Sasori and the food as if she was asking if she could eat. Deidara, either not noticing or ignoring what she was doing, started eating right away. At this, Sakura soon picked up her chopsticks and started going at the dumplings.

'_I guess that's what was making her drool so much then,'_ Sasori thought making sure to add more dumplings to their meals.

They ate with only the sounds of them chewing and their chopsticks hitting their bowls for company, Deidara and Sakura having seemed to be particularly hungry while Sasori ate at a more sedate ('_And normal,'_ thought Sasori) rate.

"Sasori, those were the best dumplings that I've had in a long time. I don't know how you did it, but keep doing it!" Sakura beamed at her brother and patted her stomach.

"You should try his oden, yeah. He makes the best bakudan ever," Deidara stated, grabbing another piece of dakon.

Finally wanting to have some time to really talk to his sister, Sasori asked, "Do you need any help with unpacking, Sakura? Or do you want to go on a tour around Konoha for a bit? It's barely eight."

"Mmm I guess a tour wouldn't be so bad. I don't really remember anything from when I was four and I wouldn't want to get lost…"

"I remember you telling me about your lack of direction," Sasori said with a chuckle.

"Hey, it just takes me some time to find my way! Nothing's wrong with a detour as long as you end up where you need to be," Sakura shot back with a pout on her face.

"As long as that doesn't mean you're chronically late, yeah," warned Deidara.

At Sakura's look of confusion wondering what that had to do with being lost, Sasori told her, "We had a teacher who would always 'get lost on the road of life' and show up late to class. All the time." At this, Sakura had to laugh at Sasori's grimacing face. Oh yeah, she definitely knew about his lack of patience.

"Sometimes he wouldn't show up until the last 15 minutes, yeah. Let's hope you don't get him this year."

"He teaches at Fire Academy?"

"He teaches Literature there. You'll know him when you see him. He's always carrying around a book," replied Sasori.

"Well, he sounds like an easygoing teacher, so maybe it won't be too bad?"

Deidara scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Wait until you meet him, yeah. Anyway, why don't you show Sakura around, Sasori. I'll do the dishes since you cooked, yeah."

Agreeing to his friend's suggestion, Sasori got up and grabbed his phone and keys. "We shouldn't be too long, Deidara. I'll bring my keys just in case." Turning to his sister, Sasori said, "You should grab a jacket. Konoha gets cold at night in March."

Nodding to what her brother said. Sakura went into her room and pulled out a grey We The Kings jacket that she got from when she went to their concert two years back. It was her favorite jacket since it had holes in the sleeves for her thumbs and a pocket for her iPod. She grabbed a pair of sandals, waved bye to Deidara, and went into the elevator with Sasori.

"How do you feel about being back, Sakura?"

"I guess I'm kind of nervous. I didn't really get to say goodbye to anyone when we moved so I only really know you and Deidara, but you guys won't be at school with me. I'm glad to be out of Oto though, even though I'll miss my friends."

Sasori had always been afraid for Sakura's well-being while she lived in Oto. He knew that the town was more ghetto than not and didn't hear very good things about what was offered there. A majority of the people living there were involved with gangs, drugs, or something illegal and he was relieved that Sakura hadn't gotten caught up in that. He didn't know why his mother would take her all the way to Oto since it was so far away, but he was glad that at least she had been safe.

"You can make new friends here, imouto, or meet your old friends. Deidara told me that Ino's over at Fire Academy so you can at least see her."

"Yeah, maybe!"

Soon they were walking out on Konoha's streets with Sasori pointing out some important building or street in hopes that Sakura wouldn't get too lost around here.

"Over here is Fire Academy. It's only a block away from home. Do you think you'll be fine walking here?"

"Yeah, yeah, niisan," Sakura replied while rolling her eyes. "I'm not _that_ bad with directions. I'll be fine."

"Maybe I should walk you your first day, just in case?"

"Oh KAMI, no. That's so embarrassing! I'll be fine, I promise!"

With a chuckle Sasori reached out to ruffle Sakura's hair again. "If you can lead us back home, then I'll consider letting you walk by yourself."

Sakura crossed her arms and glared at her brother. "Oh that's not fair. You should show me at least one more time so I get it. And you're definitely not walking me to school!" she cried with a huff and puffed out her cheeks, daring him to suggest otherwise.

He just couldn't get enough of his sister. Was she always this adorable? Was this what he was missing out on for the past twelve years? Pulling her in for a side-hug and dragging her back home, Sasori told her, "Alright, I get it. Let's go back and try to remember where we're going this time. If you get lost your first day, I'm going to let Deidara walk you to school for a week."

Sakura let out a snort at this and freed herself from Sasori's arms. "Like you could get him to. I'll just tell him to take a hike once we leave the apartment."

"You underestimate my power, imouto."

"I think you just give yourse- Oof!"

Sasori and Sakura hadn't been paying attention to their surroundings and someone had run into Sakura, causing her to stumble back and fall on her butt with something fuzzy, yellow, orange, and black lying on top of her.

"Ugh, watch where you're going, you fucktard!"

Sasori had been walking over with a scowl on his face to get the boy off of his sister, but paused at what just passed her lips. '_Did she just call someone a _fucktard_? Where did she even learn that type of language!'_ He could watch as his sister rubbed her head where she hit it against the fire hydrant and try to push the boy off of her. It was only when he saw the boy trying to get purchase on her legs to push himself up that he remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

"Get off of my sister. _Now_."

The boy quickly jumped up off of Sakura at the sound of Sasori's voice and spouted off apologies while bowing.

"I'm so, so, so, so, so, so sorry! I was in a rush to get home and I didn't see you there," he said while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

Sakura looked up from where she still sat with a glare. She closed her eyes thinking, '_why me?'_ before saying, "It's fine. Just don't do that again." Sasori pulled Sakura onto her feet and she dusted herself off.

"I promise, I'll be more careful from now on!" the boy said, adding in a few more bows.

"Yeah, yeah. It's cool." Sakura looked up to see the boy staring rather intently at her with his eyebrows all scrunched up. '_What's wrong with him now? Am I bleeding somewhere or something?'_ thought Sakura and started patting herself to see if there was a wound somewhere. Looking back at the boy, Sakura was also caught up in her thoughts. '_He looks kind of familiar though...'_

"SAKURA-CHAN! You're Sakura-chan, right? Where have you been! You just disappeared and you never came back to the park!" the boy exclaimed while getting closer to Sakura, jumping up and down in excitement.

'_Sakura-chan? No one's called me that since…'_

"Naruto?"

At his name, the boy started lit up with a big smile and hugged Sakura. "Yeah! I was afraid you forgot me for a second there. It's been so long!"

Sakura, having remembered that the boy had quickly attached to her back when they were younger just as he was doing now and the times they played together, hugged him back. Sasori couldn't do anything but look between the two knowing that he was missing something here.

"I just back to Konoha and was walking around. I'm sorry I never came back to the park to say bye."

Stepping back, Naruto said, "It's fine, I'm happy you're back now!"

Sasori cleared his throat to get their attention and stared pointedly at Naruto then at Sakura, waiting for an explanation.

"Hi there! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Are you Sakura-chan's friend?" Naruto asked, still holding onto Sakura's shoulders.

"I'm her brother. Are you going to let go of her?" Sasori asked, narrowing his glare even more, telling the boy – _Naruto was it?_ – to let go of his sister this instant.

Naruto let go of Sakura at her brother's tone and rubbed the back of his head again. "Sorry, I just missed her," Naruto said, with a grin back on his face.

"Hm," came Sasori's reply, a little bit at ease with the lack of contact between the two.

"Oh, Sasori, be nice! Naruto used to play with me when Mom would take me to the park."

Sasori gave Naruto another look at what his sister said. He knew that she was picked on a lot when she was younger, both here and in Oto, for her pink hair, forehead, and not being "quite girly enough" for the other girls. Ino had befriended her soon enough, but the fact that this boy had ignored the other kids and played with his sister earned himself a few respect points.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan didn't pick on me like the other kids. She would go on the swings and play hide-and-seek with me!" Naruto now had an even bigger grin and a look of appreciation directed at Sakura.

Now that surprised Sasori. Well, maybe not. Sakura probably didn't want Naruto to suffer like how she did when other kids picked on her and ostracized her, so she befriended him, like how Ino befriended her. Being alone together was better than nothing, right? Maybe the kid wasn't so bad if his imouto picked him as a friend.

"I see. I'm Sasori, Sakura's older brother." Sasori stuck his hand out for Naruto to shake, which he took and gave a firm, if very exuberant, handshake.

Naruto knew _of_ Sasori at the very least. Sakura used to tell him about her older brother when they would play, like how if he was there with them, he would definitely yell at those kids and tell them to be nicer and how he loved her and she loved him. Naruto had always been slightly envious of Sakura's love for her brother. He wanted her to talk about him the same way; she always spoke of him with a big smile and wild hand gestures. She had been his first real friend and she had been special to him. She was the cutest girl that he had ever seen and at four years old, he just wanted to have her around. When she stopped coming to the park with her mom, he was devastated. His only friend was gone and he didn't know how to find her.

Looking up at the sky, Naruto remembered that he was supposed to be home by now otherwise he'd be in trouble.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, I gotta get home, but I'll talk to you soon, ok? Do you want to meet up sometime or something to catch up?"

"Oh, yeah, sure! I'm living in an apartment near here. I still have to unpack and then get ready for the entrance ceremony for school though. Here, give me your phone."

Naruto patted his pockets for his phone and gave it to Sakura. "Where are you going to school, Sakura-chan? Maybe we'll be classmates!"

"I'm going to Fire Academy down over there," she replied while entering her number into Naruto's phone.

With a big grin, Naruto told her that he was going there too and that he would definitely help her with whatever she needed.

"I can tell you all about the teachers there and all the good hiding spots when you wanna ditch class."

At this, Sasori let out a low growl, obviously displeased that he would even suggest something like that. Sakura will _not_ be ditching class.

Naruto gave a nervous laugh and waved his hands in front of him. "I'm just kidding, kidding! I mean, good spots to study and stuff. Right, Sakura-chan?" Naruto looked over to her for help appeasing her older brother.

Sakura called her number from Naruto's phone so she would also have his number and gave him back his phone.

"Of course. I knew what you were talking about," she replied with a sweet smile, knowing that he meant his original statement and not the one amended for Sasori's sake.

Naruto smiled back at her and said goodbye to the siblings, running home and promising that he would see her soon.

Sakura waved back and turned to her brother. "He's interesting, ne?"

"Hm."

With a roll of her eyes, Sakura lightly hit Sasori's arm and started walking back home. "Oh be nice! He was one of my first friends and he doesn't seem to be angry with me for leaving. Maybe I'll see him tomorrow if I'm done unpacking."

Sasori followed behind her, making sure that she would turn when she needed to and go straight when she needed to, and was content that at least she had someone else to take care of her when he couldn't. As long as she was happy, then he was happy to let her do as she pleased.

"Leave that until tomorrow then. We should hurry back. Deidara might've blown up the kitchen by now."

Sakura could only laugh at that, knowing what she did about Deidara's "art" and hurried back home.

* * *

Naruto was running as fast as he could back to his house. He didn't realize how long he had been at Ichiraku with Iruka until Iruka went home to his wife. Then he had bolted down the street to get home and had literally ran into Sakura-chan. He was really happy to see her again and excited to hang out with her again. Even though it had been twelve years since he last saw her, he still remembered his first friend.

It had taken him two weeks to come to terms with the fact that she wasn't coming back to the park anymore. For a while the other kids had left both of them alone with an insult from time to time when they would pass by instead of the hits and objects that would be thrown. They weren't going to hit a girl and Naruto wouldn't have let them anyway. Plus, when Ino would come play with them, the kids would steer clear of them completely. Afterwards though… Naruto would avoid the park altogether.

It took him another couple minutes to reach his house and he already saw his friends sitting outside on the steps waiting for him.

He hadn't always lived here. Before, he had been at an orphanage where the other orphans would pick on him. He could never escape it. If it wasn't kids at the orphanage, it was kids at the park or the mall or school.

Eventually, he resorted to pulling as many pranks as he could on both the nuns who ran the orphanage and on the teachers and kids at school. It wasn't until his guardian, Jiraiya (AKA Ero Sennin, the perv), adopted him four years ago that he stopped fooling around. Now, he lived here with Jiraiya and his wife and on those very steps were his friends giving him murderous looks for making them sit outside in the cold.

"Oi, Naruto! What took you so long, dumbass?" Naruto's friend and former prank buddy Kiba looked at him with a frown on his face. He didn't know why Kiba was complaining anyway… he always wore that warm, furry brown jacket. Plus he had Akamaru!

"Dobe, hurry up and open the door. Shikamaru already fell asleep." Naruto's best friend and forever rival Sasuke stood against the railing with his hands in his pockets and started kicking their other friend, Shikamaru, to wake him up.

"You guys will never guess who I ran into today!"

"Was it the President?" asked the fifth person of their group, Chouji, who was also swatting at Sasuke's foot to save Shikamaru from some bruises.

"Was it your brain?" Sasuke asked with a smirk on his face.

"What! No, teme! I saw Sakura-chan today!" Naruto exclaimed while opening the door and taking off his shoes.

"Sakura? Is she back?" Shikamaru asked, finally opening his eyes, getting up off the floor, and thanking Chouji for saving his ribs.

"Yeah she was walking around when I ran into her. She just moved back and she's going to Fire Academy with us!" Naruto shouted from the kitchen.

"I wonder if she remembers us. We only saw her a few times when we hung out with Ino. What do you think, Shikamaru?"

They had gathered in Naruto's room waiting for him to bring drinks and some chips. Shikamaru basically collapsed on Naruto's bed, Sasuke sat in Naruto's desk chair, while Chouji and Kiba sat on the floor.

"Yeah, the troublesome girl. At least she wasn't as loud as Ino," sighed Shikamaru.

"Oi, oi. Who's Sakura? Was she in our class?"

"No, Kiba. She moved during kindergarten. She went to school with Shikamaru, but she was friends with Ino so we used to play together. She had bright pink hair, pretty hard to forget," Chouji sad.

"Pink hair? Man, her parents must've not liked her or something."

'_A girl named Sakura with pink hair? No way, did she follow me here or something?'_

"Nah," replied Naruto. "It was her real hair color. Her brother's a redhead but she somehow wound up with pink hair," passing out the sodas to everyone.

'_A red-headed brother… it couldn't be. What was she doing here?'_

"Still sounds rough. Can you imagine having _pink hair_?" Kiba shuddered at the thought of a pink-hair Naruto and Kiba running around. They would have _been_ pranked instead of _doing_ the pranks.

The others agreed. They were definitely happier that she ended up with pink hair and not them.

"Anyway, I'm probably gonna hang out with her tomorrow when she's free. Do you want to come along? She's new and she should have some friends!" Naruto looked at the four of them with a determined face, hitting his hand with his fist to show it.

"Ah how troublesome. If she doesn't mind then I'll come."

Chouji shrugged, "Yeah, I don't mind either. Nothing to do until school starts again. Do you think we should tell Ino?"

"She probably doesn't care anymore," replied Shikamaru, sounding more forlorn now than before.

"Yeah, you're probably right… What about you guys?" Chouji asked, trying to get off the subject of Ino.

"Yeah, I wanna meet pinky!"

Sasuke was too caught up in his thoughts trying to remember if she told him of any plans to move to Konoha or if she was originally from here to miss Naruto's invitation. Naruto, fed up with Sasuke ignoring him, walked over to him and smacked his head.

Sasuke glared at Naruto and asked, "What was that for, dobe?"

"I asked you a question! Do you want to go meet Sakura tomorrow with us?"

"Hn. I'm busy."

"Like what, pulling the stick out of your ass?"

"Nice one, Kiba!" Naruto said and gave him a high-five.

"Hn. I have to drop by the school to turn in my transfer papers and go meet Itachi. He's coming home tomorrow and I'm expected to be home," Sasuke said with a scoff. He also needed to go see if this Sakura was the same one he was thinking of and if it was, he needed to talk to her.

"Oh, well you can meet her at school then! I'll text her now to see if she wants to hang out tomorrow." Naruto whipped out his phone and started texting her.

Sasuke decided to talk to Suigetsu and Juugo first and if anything, he could just show up and talk to her tomorrow. With this, he went and sat with the others who turned on Naruto's Xbox.

**To:** Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
hey sakurachan its naruto! do you want to hang out tmrw? shikamaru, chouji, and kiba want to see you! do you remember em?

Naruto sent the message and watched Sasuke and Kiba playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Shikamaru already fell asleep, waiting for his turn to play, and Chouji was making his own commentary and sound effects when their fighters would land hits.

"I call winner!" Naruto shouted. Soon Naruto felt his phone vibrate and checked to see what Sakura-chan said.

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Sakura  
Yeah that sounds ok. I already started unpacking so I should be done by the afternoon. When do you want to hang out and what do you want to do?

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
you can tell us when youre free. well show you around!

"Hey, Naruto! Your turn." Kiba tossed him the controller and Naruto proceeded to choose his characters. He chose Phoenix Wright, the Hulk, and Taskmaster to battle against Sasuke's team of Super-Skrull, Dante, and Taskmaster.

Naruto eventually lost to Sasuke and called him a cheater. Sasuke just smirked in return and called him a loser. He glared at Sasuke before giving Chouji the controller and checking his phone again.

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Sakura  
Sounds like a plan. I'll talk to you tomorrow then.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
night, sakurachan!

Happy that he would get a chance to see his old friend tomorrow, he put his phone away and gleefully watched Chouji's Ryu destroy Sasuke's Taskmaster.

* * *

A/N:

I hope the whole thing with the different colleges wasn't too confusing! I basically paired the Japanese word for the numbers 1-9 with the Japanese word for school (mure) and picked some general disciplines. I just _had_ to put 8 as art since Bee (**Hachi**bi) raps so much.

I also picked the song _Saints and Sailors_ by Dashboard Confessionals since I thought the chorus related to how I wanted to portray Sasori and Naruto in this chapter. Both are essentially waiting for Sakura to show up to fill the void in their lives. Sasori is literally waiting for a phone call to know that Sakura finally arrived and his protectiveness of Sakura might lead him to think something happened to her. Naruto, on the other hand, likes listening to her talk and it fills up what would have been silence with her voice.

By the way, Naruto's grammar mistakes in his text messages to Sakura are intentional. I know, it bothers me too.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed the first chapter!

13/07/12

edit: 06/08/12


	2. Stationary, Stationary

Chapter 2: Stationary, Stationary  
_Do they not have pen or paper where you are?_  
'_Cause I haven't heard from you in ages  
I relive each memory from time to time,  
Reread notes exchanged with all those scented pages  
It's coming back,  
It's all coming back to me now._

* * *

**2012 March 30**

Sakura had already been up since 8 organizing her room when Deidara finally woke up at 11 and sleepily looked into her room.

"Do you guys ever _relax_, yeah?"

Sparing Deidara a glance and then putting up her poster of The Reconteurs, Sakura laughed and said, "Yeah, when I sleep, Deidara. I want to finish with all of this before I go out later."

Deidara let out a yawn and made his way to the bathroom. "The two of you are crazy, yeah."

Sakura let out another laugh, but was inclined to agree. Sasori had woke up around the same time to work on some project that he had going on. She already made a lot of progress last night and this morning. She only had to set up her make-up and mirror (she didn't think Deidara or Sasori would appreciate all of that in the bathroom…) and she'd be done.

She grabbed the small rectangular mirror and the box with her make-up and started setting everything up. Sakura actually didn't like make-up all that much, but had started using it when her friends in Oto pressured her into it. At least she didn't cake it all on like her friend Karin did, though she was thankful that Karin taught her how to use all of this. She probably would've poked her eye out with the eyeliner or eyelash curler. Those things are _dangerous_. She did, however, have tons of nail polish. It was the one luxury that she loved having. She once prized her hair until a certain Oto bitch forced her to cut it all off. She didn't mind having shorter hair though.

Once she was done with her new "make me pretty" station, she sat on her bed and pulled out her phone. She had a load of messages from her Oto friends that she had been neglecting since yesterday and she should probably get to them soon.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Karin  
Hey beezy what's goin' on? You alright in Konoha?

She and Karin had met in their first year in junior high and for awhile, Karin had hated her. Sakura never spoke to anyone and was the smartest girl in their grade, beating out Karin who had held that title at her old elementary school. At the time, Sakura was used to being picked on and not making any friends, so she usually stayed in the back of the classroom and kept to herself. It wasn't until Kin, a girl Sakura had met back in first grade and was one of the biggest bullies in their class, had started a fight with Sakura that their relationship changed.

Kin had always bullied Sakura into doing things for her at their old elementary school, like giving her Sakura's lunch money, letting her copy or sometimes use her homework, or doing Kin's cleaning duty. Kin was a year older, but some grades were combined to make up for a lack of students and teachers.

Sakura had finally had enough of it and told her that she didn't want to do any of that anymore. Kin, with her friends Dosu and Zaku, cornered her after school and started pushing her around. It escalated to the point where Kin kept Sakura in place by holding and pulling on her hair. Karin had been at the door watching what was happening. At first, she had been happy that Sakura "got what she had coming to her," but the violence that Kin and her friends used made Karin ashamed and scared.

As Kin was taunting Sakura, calling her names and making fun of her forehead and lack of social skills, Sakura grabbed for a pair of scissors on the teacher's desk and started cutting at her hair. When she cut through the strands that Kin had grabbed onto, she told them that she didn't care about any of that because if she was so bad and inferior, then why was _Kin_ using _her_. She told them that she wasn't going to stay quiet anymore and threw the scissors at Kin's feet.

Kin made a move to attack her again, but Sakura just stood there with a defiant look in her eyes. Kin knew that Sakura wasn't going to bend over and do her bidding anymore so she left, obviously angry. Luckily, Karin managed to hide behind the water fountain as she walked out. Kin's anger was notorious throughout their small school.

At the sounds of Sakura's crying, Karin walked in and hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder. When Sakura tensed up and looked over her shoulder expecting Kin to come back and attack her again, Karin offered her an awkward smile. She started gathering up the hair that Sakura cut and threw it away as Sakura tried to calm herself down. Once Karin was done, she knelt in front of Sakura and the two just stared at each other.

Sakura was never going to forget the next words that came out of Karin's mouth.

"_Hey, Pinky. It looks like your self-haircut turned out pretty badly. Do you…do you want me to fix it for you? Just so it's even. Not that I care or anything! You're just an eyesore, you know? I mean, staying quiet all this time because Kin's such a bitch and doing something so brave and cool like that. You're just so weird sometimes!"_

Sakura, despite "lacking social skills," knew what Karin was trying to tell her. She was proud of her for standing up to Kin and she was sorry for the last two months. Sakura smiled up at Karin and handed her the scissors.

"_I'd appreciate it if you fixed it. Maybe then I won't be such an eyesore."_

Karin knew what Sakura was trying to say to her then too. _Thank you for coming for me and being my friend. Now I won't be so miserable. Thank you_.

It was from then on that the two would become fast friends, even though Karin would always be vain and conceited and Sakura would always be snarky and confrontational. It didn't help that both girls were bipolar and their personalities could change without warning, but the two stuck it out, together for the last four years.

**To**: Karin  
**From**: Sakura  
Hey, slut. I just finished unpacking. It's so much work! Remind me not to move ever again. How's it over there?

Sakura sent the message and scrolled down to another in need of a reply. All twelve of them. Sakura just shook her head at her friend. Geez, with that many you'd think someone died.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
fuckkk its so boring here. when you comin back pinky

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
pinky are you ignoring me bc ill have you knw ill cut a bitch

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
geez whats takin you so long. it doesnt take that long to reply

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
fuck man karins being a bitch again. tell your girl to calm the fuck down. shopping is so fucking stupid

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
ok fine just forget all about the bestest biggest baddest bitch you ever met. ill find another winggirl!

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
there are so many fucking shoes here. who the fuck needs so many fucking shoes? i swear karin already has enough for 3 lifetimes. they fucking hurt too. i rather be barefoot

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
i swear if you can save me from this crazy bitch i wont curse ever again. i promise

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
why wont you save meeeeee! you dont love me anymore? fuck. i think karin's making me her new shopping bitch since youre gone. fuckfuckfuck

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
ok shoe crisis over. how the fuck did you do this all the time with her? fuck. the crazy bitch

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
fucking pinky where are youuu im gonna go to konoha to find your punkass!

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
hey you ok though right?

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
pinkyyyyy come back!

Sakura just had to laugh at her. Despite all the expletives and "hate" Tayuya had for her and Karin, she knew that the three of them were best friends.

Tayuya had grown up with five other boys in a foster home. She considered herself the oldest and the leader of her foster siblings simply because Kimimaro, who was older than her by a year, had been on bed rest or in the hospital so much that he couldn't very well look after them, so she took the job. She took care of Sakon and Ukon (twin boys who were damn near inseparable), Jirobo (who she liked to pick on), and Kidomaru (the youngest of the five).

After all that she had been through at the orphanage and the other seven foster homes she was sent to, Tayuya decided that she didn't want to have to rely on other people and she wasn't going to try to act like a little princess for anyone. So, she picked up cursing from her fourth foster father who constantly drank and swore like a sailor. She said her first curse word when she was eight, and she was damn proud of it.

When she got to eighth and final house though, she had the boys to look after, so she stopped trying to run away and stayed where she was to be with them. They constantly bickered, insulted each other, pissed each other off, and everything in between, but not one of them would trade their family for another. Kimimaro was already 18, but because his body was so weak, he missed a lot of school and was held back a year, so the five of them were spending their last year of high school together before moving out.

Unsurprisingly, because of her cold personality and foul mouth, Tayuya made very little, if any, friends. However, she took a liking to Sakura back in her first year at junior high school because Sakura had been so damn _innocent_ and hey, _wouldn't it be fun to corrupt that little girl?_

Karin didn't want anything to do with the girl. She had gone to elementary school with her and Tayuya was Karin's Kin, so to speak. Tayuya never personally picked on her and probably didn't even remember her, but she had been the bully of the school. Plus, there was already enough shades of pink between her and Sakura without adding Tayuya into the mix.

Sakura, though, didn't mind having her around. She thought Tayuya was funny and eventually Tayuya's bad habit became Sakura's. That isn't to say that Sakura was as bad as Tayuya; it was just that Sakura had a lot more control over her mouth than Tayuya did. The verbal spars that the two would have, though, would make Karin turn red with embarrassment from their language and Jirobo to scream at them to _shut your pie holes because you're stinking up the place with your language!_

Soon Tayuya's group of six expanded to eight with Karin and Sakura and got into all sorts of trouble. It was from Tayuya and her brothers that Karin and Sakura learned how to stick up for themselves from anyone who challenged them. With Tayuya's friendship, Kin put a stop to picking on Sakura altogether, especially since she grew a spine.

Back in Oto, no one was safe. It didn't matter if you were five or fifty, a girl or a boy, pregnant or anorexic; everyone was in constant danger because of someone or everyone else. You had to learn to either hide really well or have a nice, solid punch.

Of the eight of them, five of them served as brute force or muscle of their makeshift gang. Those five consisted of Tayuya (because she would _never_ back down from a fight), Jirobo (he wasn't, ah, the right size to do anything undercover), Sakon (he was such a sadist sometimes), Kidomaru (he loved his guerilla warfare), and Sakura (though she didn't fight as much as the others) and were called the Sound Five. The other three, Kimimaro, Karin, and Ukon, didn't participate as much in the fighting and so weren't as visible in the gang as the others. Ukon was different though. He and Sakon worked out an operation where the two would switch places during fights to mislead their opponents.

Despite being the "older sister" of the Sound Five, Sakon had been the leader of the gang since he wasn't as impulsive and foolhardy as Tayuya or his twin brother. They both tended to act rashly and were quite impatient; they preferred to charge into battles without thinking things through.

Sakura would act as Sakon's second when Kimimaro was absent. As much as Sakon and Ukon liked misdirection, there was no one who could better manipulate and trick people than Sakura. No one ever suspected the little green eyed, pink haired girl of misconduct or foul play. She and Karin would sometimes carry out stealth or spying missions against other Oto gangs in order to protect themselves and their friends. It would be the Sound Five that caused Sakura to change from the quiet bookworm with the too big sweater and glasses in the back of the classroom to the loud and abrasive teenager who was out of class more than in and preferred the thrill of a "mission" to the dullness of homework.

Sakura had liked her life back in Oto for awhile, especially her friends. They had been her family when she left Konoha, when her mother turned to the drugs that Oto offered, and when her father died. They had moved here because Sakura's cousin had lived here and Sakura's mom, more than anything else, wanted to be near family. However, her cousin didn't care for her or her mother and Sakura suspected that he was the one who turned her mother onto drugs in the first place. Now, her mother was a pale and frail lump of skin and bones in the living room waiting for her next fix. She had tried to help her, but there was only so much a small child could do before learning that she was on her own.

When Sasori offered to pay her way back to Konoha, Sakura immediately agreed. She didn't have anything going for her back in Oto anymore, besides her friends. Even though she was in constant danger even when walking down a street in broad daylight, she had been happy. Sure, she blew off homework, relying on her natural intelligence, common sense, and luck to do her tests and projects, and tried to spend as much time as possible out of the house, but she had her friends and her optimism, never truly letting herself give up. They also all wanted to leave Oto and get a better life somewhere else and now Sasori was giving her that chance.

She knew that Konoha and Oto were completely different – two different worlds in different universes – despite only remembering what she did from when she was four.

She knew that Oto was rundown and a death trap for whoever lived there whereas Konoha was where the pretty and posh people lived and had an endless number of opportunities at their fingertips. Sometimes, during her conversations with Sasori, she couldn't help but be envious of his life. He had so many options, could do so many things, while she was hundreds of miles away running as fast as she could to escape a rival gang, stealing to survive, or stitch together a nasty cut she got courtesy of some Oto bitch. She knew that she could do better for herself in Konoha, way more than what Oto offered. It was Jirobo and Kimimaro who talked to her, listened to her reasons, and agreed that moving would be beneficial for her.

Tayuya, Karin, and Sakon were devastated, to say the least, but they supported her decision too while making her promise to keep in touch and visit. She knew that she would never forget them, but she was ready for a change. She was willing to hide the Sakura who had lived in Oto and be the Sakura who could live and thrive in Konoha. This was her chance. Well, in front of her Konoha friends anyway. Text messages with her Oto friends didn't count.

**To**: Tayuya  
**From**: Sakura  
You crazy, bitch, it's only been a day. Chill the fuck out, I'm fine. I ain't never coming back! Good luck with Karin though... you'll need it ;)

Sakura scrolled back up to reply to what Karin messaged back to her.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Karin  
You can move again if you decide to move back here with me or wherever I am! Not too bad, took Tayuya to the mall yesterday to look for shoes. It's not the same without my favorite beezy.

**To**: Karin  
**From**: Sakura  
Haha yeah she told me about it. Take it easy on the girl, you know she can get feisty. Tell the boys I said hey for me!

Having gotten those texts out of the way, Sakura decided to grab a bagel to eat and text Naruto to see if he was free now.

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Sakura  
Hey, Naruto, I'm done unpacking. Do you want to hang out now?

The bagel had just finished toasting and she was about to add the cream cheese on when her phone vibrated on the countertop. Wondering who out of the three sent her a text this time, Sakura put the knife down to check her phone.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Tayuya  
ha ha very funny slut. youre coming back for summerbreak, you promised!

**To**: Tayuya  
**From**: Sakura  
We'll see. If you're good then maybe I'll grace your pathetic ass with my presence again ;)

Just as she finished sending the message to Tayuya, her phone vibrated again letting her know that Naruto sent her back a message.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
OK! ill go call the other guys and we can go. can you meet us at the pet store where we met yesterday? kiba works there

Hm, pet store? She could probably find her way there… Yeah, probably. Hopefully.

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Sakura  
That sounds fine. I'll meet you there in 15 minutes.

Sakura grabbed her bagel and peeked into Sasori and Deidara's workroom to see her brother still working on something she couldn't see.

"Hey, Sasori, I'm going out now to meet Naruto and his friends. I'll see you for dinner later?"

"Sure, try not to cause too much trouble out there. If you need anything, I'll be home all day," answered Sasori, never looking up from his work. "Do you know what time you'll be back?"

"I'll only be out for a bit. What time do you guys usually have dinner?"

"Be back by 5, or I'll send Deidara out to look for you."

"Yeah, yeah, ok."

Rolling her eyes, Sakura turned and went into her room. She was kind of excited to meet Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji again. They, along with Ino, had been her favorite playmates when she was younger. She didn't know who Kiba was, but she wasn't adverse to making some friends before school started. Now what should she wear…

* * *

**To**: Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba  
**From**: Naruto  
hey meet me at furry friends right now! were gonna hangout with sakurachan!

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Chouji  
Ill go pick up Shikamaru and wake him up

Naruto knew that Shikamaru wouldn't be awake yet. It was too early for the boy. Kiba was working and probably couldn't text them back or he would get in trouble. Again.

Slipping on a pair of Converses, Naruto left his house and made his way to Furry Friends, the pet store that Kiba was currently working at.

He was looking forward to having some more time to spend with Sakura-chan. He didn't really know why she moved away all those years ago, but he was glad she was back. Ino had only told him that she and her mother moved somewhere, but she didn't know where and for how long. Luckily for Naruto, he gained some new friends, Shikamaru and Chouji, after playing in the park with them and Sakura a couple times.

The orphanage enrolled him and the other kids at a public kindergarten daycare facility when they were old enough and sent them on their way. Once he was old enough for elementary school, Naruto found himself with Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino again. A few years later, Naruto's circle expanded to include Kiba, Shino, and Sasuke, though Sasuke had moved away for a couple years and had just moved back. Ino and they eventually grew apart when she decided that she was too good to be hanging out with guys of their caliber. Nowadays, the only girl that Naruto was actually friends with was Hinata-chan, even though she was super shy and kind of weird.

He couldn't wait to introduce Sakura-chan to all of his friends; he was sure they would all get along. He knew that Chouji and Shikamaru, not that the latter would ever admit it, missed Ino and since Sakura-chan was back, maybe Ino would hang out with them again. They used to be best friends after all. She would probably be attracted to Sasuke too, being the pretty boy he always was, but Naruto wasn't sure if Sasuke would be into the Ino's popular scene.

A few minutes later, Naruto saw Sakura-chan pressed up against the windows of the pet shop looking at the puppies they had displayed. Despite the chilly weather, she was wearing a pair of shorts, a loose shirt, and a pair of sandals again. Maybe it had been colder where she was before and Konoha's cold temperature didn't bother her?

Looking around, he didn't see Chouji or Shikamaru anywhere; Chouji was probably having trouble waking his best friend up.

"Hey! Sakura-chan!"

"Oh, hey, Naruto! Where are your friends?"

"Shikamaru and Chouji are on their way. Kiba works here though, let me introduce you to him!"

Sakura followed Naruto into the pet store and saw various families milling around looking at pets for their children. There were bunnies, all sorts of birds, kittens, puppies, and a bunch of lizards and snakes all around the store.

'_Whoever Naruto's friend is must really like animals to work here,'_ thought Sakura.

While Naruto tried to find his friend, Sakura went over to the puppy pen where she had been looking at some of the most adorable puppies she had ever seen. One had white fur and some brown spots on its tail and a brown spot right beneath its nose, making it seem as if it had a mustache. The second puppy had golden brown fur and was currently rolling around in the straw with the first puppy. There was also a pure black Labrador sitting in the corner and started walking over to her when it saw her. Sakura reached her hand in to pet the puppy and it licked her hand when it got close to its nose.

Sakura entertained the thought of taking the puppy home, wishing that she had had the chance to own a pet since she doubted Sasori would allow her to adopt one for their apartment.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! This is my friend Kiba."

Sakura turned around and saw her friend standing next to a brunette. He had two red triangle markings and a smile on his face. He wore a black apron with the words "Furry Friends" on the front on top of a pair of jeans and a muscle tank top. She noticed that he was taller than Naruto and some muscles on his arm.

'_I could probably take him though, if I had to,'_ Sakura dismissed the thought as soon as it finished. She didn't have to think like that anymore, not in Konoha. People weren't going to attack her just because here.

"Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Sakura, I'm a friend of Naruto's from a while back," Sakura told the boy.

"Hey, name's Kiba. Me and Naruto go way back too and he kept talking about you yesterday. You wanna get a pup for yourself?"

"Oh, no my brother would never let me. They're really cute though."

Kiba laughed and walked closer to the puppies. "They are, aren't they? These two are from my mom's dog's litter. We're hoping someone nice will adopt them." Kiba started petting the two puppies she was initially looking at and had earned himself some brownie points in Sakura's book. You could sort of tell what type of guy someone one by how they treated the vulnerable.

"If you ever decide you want one, just tell me, pinky!"

At the sound of the nickname, Sakura's mind froze. _'Uh, what? Didn't I just say my name was _Sakura_? Who does he think he is calling me _Pinky_?'_ thought Sakura, removing the smile on her face and replacing it with a frown.

"I'd prefer it if you called me by my name. Sakura. Just Sakura."

Kiba raised his eyebrows, taken aback by both her expression and her hard tone. Girl sounded like one of those prissy princess types who always got her way. Great, another one of _those_ girls as if they didn't have enough at school already.

"Uhh ok, got it. _Sakura_. Well I have to get back to work. See you guys later." Kiba quickly dismissed himself, not wanting to deal with her if she _was_ the type of girl he thought she was. And here he thought she'd be alright since Naruto knew her.

"Oi, you're off at 12:30, right? We'll wait for you to get off. Shikamaru and Chouji are late," Naruto called out.

'_Ugh I was trying to make my escape here, Naruto.'_

"Yeah, sure. I'll meet you outside," Kiba tossed over his shoulder, before walking over to the back and continued organizing the boxes of new merchandise they just got.

Shrugging her shoulders, Sakura walked over to the display of kittens nearby. She knew that she could've handled that better, used a nicer tone or whatever, but she didn't like other people calling her that. She only let Tayuya, and on occasion Jirobo and Kidomaru, call her that. She was more than a head of pink hair, _thank you very much_.

She and Naruto spent the next couple minutes looking at the different animals the store had and talking, waiting for either Kiba to get off or for Chouji and Shikamaru to show up.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, isn't Usagi-chan cute?"

Naruto had picked up a white and grey rabbit from the pen and put it on his head, wearing it as a hat, making Sakura laugh.

"Baka, what if it poops on your head!"

Suddenly scared for the well-being of his head, Naruto screamed and quickly put the rabbit back in the pen and combed through his hair in hopes of getting any rabbit poop out.

"Ahh Sakura-chan, did I get it all out? Ugh what if it peed or got diarrhea? IS MY HAIR GOING TO FALL OFF?"

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at her friend. "Don't be such a baka! I was just kidding, there's nothing in your hair. Relax."

"Geez, what did you do this name, Naruto? Everyone's staring and keeping their kids away from you," asked Shikamaru as he and Chouji walked closer to Sakura and Naruto.

"Shikamaru! Chouji! Wow, you guys are so much taller now! How have you been?" Sakura quickly came up to the two boys, secretly lamenting the fact that they were both so much taller than she was now, but happy to see her two childhood friends again.

She had immediately recognized the two boys from her youth. Chouji still had the two red swirly marks on his cheeks and, well, his girth hadn't really changed. He was wearing a green T-shirt with some logo on the front with a pair of khaki shorts. Shikamaru, ever the lazy bastard she remembered, walked in with a slouch and his hands deep in his brown pants and a white T-shirt with a picture of a sleeping panda on it, complete with pillow and Z's.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! We're alright, how have you been?"

Shikamaru sighed and said, "Stop being so troublesome, silly girl. Of course we're taller." Shikamaru gave a smirk at the girl, knowing that she would know he was happy to see her.

"Oh you, never anything nice to say," Sakura said with a roll of her eyes. "I've been ok, I'm glad to see you guys again and that we're going to be classmates! Where's Ino? Is she coming afterwards?"

Each of the three boys reacted differently when Sakura mentioned her first ever friend's name. It was so strange since Shikamaru and Chouji had been friends with her before Sakura came along, and she knew that they had accepted Naruto when she befriended him. Shikamaru looked at something random to his left with a scowl while Chouji just looked down at the floor, obviously not so happy anymore and Naruto crossed his arms with an angry look on face. He was more upset for Shikamaru and Chouji than he was for himself. They had been best friends before he came along and he knew how sad the other two boys had been when she stopped hanging out with them.

"She doesn't hang out with us anymore," Kiba said from behind Sakura and Naruto. He had taken off the apron from before and was dressed in his jeans, tank top, and his thick brown sweater.

"Oh. Ok." Sakura knew that something had happened between them and Ino and resolved not to mention her again. "Well, where are we off to now, Naruto? I haven't been here for so long, I forget what's around here."

Sakura grabbed onto Naruto's arm and dragged him out of the store, knowing the others would follow and wanting to break the atmosphere she created.

"Well, there's always Ichiraku!" Naruto happily answered, stomach already ready for some more ramen.

Sakura heard the boys behind them groan at Naruto's suggestion, but couldn't stop Naruto from dragging her to this Ichiraku, whatever it was.

* * *

Chouji, Shikamaru, and Kiba had all stopped paying attention to their meals and were staring at Sakura and Naruto with disgusted or surprised looks on their faces. They never thought they'd see the day when someone could actually compete with Naruto's enthusiasm for inhaling ramen, but here she was, pink hair and all. Chouji could definitely match Naruto in an eating contest, but after so many trips to Ichiraku and ramen eating contests, Chouji usually stuck to one or two bowls.

'_Holy shit. To think Princess had it in her to do that much damage. She's definitely not like Ino and them,'_ thought Kiba, amending his first impression of the girl.

Both Sakura and Naruto had gone at it when they reached the ramen shop, each ordering 3 bowls of ramen, but that count already increased to 5 with Sakura almost done with her fifth and Naruto just starting his.

"Ahh. That was really good. Oto really needs good ramen like that," Sakura said, putting down her bowl and contently patting her stomach.

At this point, Naruto stopped eating his ramen (_gasp!_) to look at his childhood friend with something akin to astonishment and respect in his eyes. Sakura could actually eat ramen faster than he could, and maybe if she was really hungry, she could eat _more than he could!_

"Sakura-chan. I think I love you," Naruto said in all seriousness.

Sakura looked over at Naruto and noticed how the other three boys were looking at her. She stared at her collection of empty ramen bowls and their unfinished bowls and suddenly felt embarrassed. _'Should I have eaten slower or something? I mean, that's how we eat in Oto. You have to eat fast and be on your feet again, never staying anywhere for too long.'_

"Hahhh I guess I was hungrier than I thought?" she offered, clearly embarrassed.

"Sakura, that was awesome. You should join our eating contests with us!" Chouji exclaimed, excited to have someone else other than Naruto, and Kiba occasionally, to compete against.

"Ah yeah, maybe. If the food's good, I'm game."

Now that everyone had finished eating (_'Seriously, guys? You're only eating _one_ bowl? How is that even enough to sustain you?'_), they were sitting around and talking, catching up with Sakura.

"So you were in Oto this entire time, Sakura-chan?"

"Yeah, for the last twelve years. The food there is no where as good as it is here though. My friends would be so disappointed."

"Well, you should invite them over! There's plenty of good food here," Chouji said.

Sakura smiled at the suggestion, inwardly thinking that probably _everything_ was better here in Konoha than it was in Oto. That was part of the reason she moved back.

"You know, Sasuke had been in Oto too. Do you know anyone by the name of Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura-chan?"

'_Uchiha Sasuke? The fuck? How do they know Sasuke?'_

"Ah I'm not really sure. Why do you ask?" Sakura was anxious to know, to see how much potential damage Sasuke could do to her life in Konoha.

"We're friends! Sasuke-teme moved to Oto 3 years ago and he just transferred back this year."

'_Shit, it's probably him. Fuck, I didn't know he was moving here. Ah I need to talk to him! Damnit I didn't want to see his face again. Fuck, fuck, fuck.'_

"Oh, maybe I ran into him then. Is he coming later?" asked Sakura, thinking the sooner she got to the Uchiha, the better.

"Nah he's at home meeting his brother or something."

'_Ok, well, at least that means he won't be able to say anything to them. I doubt he would say anything anyway, but I don't know how close he is to Naruto and them. I need to find him. And fast.'_

"That's too bad then. Ok, so tell me what I need to know about Fire Academy. My brother already told me about some super lazy, super late teacher, but what else should I know?" Sakura said, trying to change the subject to avoid talking about Oto and Sasuke altogether.

Kiba laughed at what she said and leaned forward on his hand to talk to her. "Yeah, they were probably talking about Kakashi-sensei. You can do whatever you want in class since he's never there, but he's pretty hard."

"And he always returns our papers and projects months after we turn them in. Asuma-sensei is really laidback though. He doesn't mind when Shikamaru sleeps in class," offered Chouji.

"He teaches history and he's our homeroom teacher now," remarked Kiba, pointing to himself, Chouji, and Shikamaru. Sakura looked over at said boy who looked like he was sleeping, but was probably awake and hearing everything they were talking about.

"Kurenai-sensei was my homeroom teacher for awhile and the psychology teacher, but she left for maternity leave. Anko-sensei filled in for her for the last two terms and she is bat shit crazy," Kiba continued with a shudder.

"Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei are married. I heard she's coming back this term though, but not teaching as many classes. Hinata will be glad she's back," Chouji continued and directed the last part at Naruto and Kiba.

"Ok, got it."

"The other teachers are pretty nice and laidback. We're all the same year so we'll probably have the same classes. Except Shikamaru, since he's in the advanced classes," said Chouji.

"It's such a drag too. I should've failed the placement exams and skipped more problems on the entrance exam."

"Oh yeah, when do we find out about our placement exam scores?" asked Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, you had to take them?"

"Yeah, I had to take them after I took the entrance exam. Why, is that a bad thing?"

"No, not at all! Only kids who score really high, like Shikamaru high, on the entrance exam take those so they can get into the higher level classes. Wow, Sakura-chan, you must be really smart!"

"You troublesome girl, you should've failed them and saved yourself the trouble," Shikamaru told her, looking at her with some more interest now. _'Maybe if we take the same classes together, she'll let me copy her notes and be my project partner so I can sleep more.'_

The other boys were looking at Sakura with the same thoughts on their minds. Naruto and Kiba definitely wouldn't mind some extra tutoring sessions with the girl and Chouji hoped that she would motivate Shikamaru instead of encouraging his lazy behavior.

Sakura was embarrassed with the sudden attention to her, the exams, and her brain. Sure, she had been considered smart back in junior high, but she hadn't taken her studies seriously for the past 2 years. She doubted she was as smart as Shikamaru with the way she was now.

"It was probably because I studied really hard for the entrance exam! I don't even know how I managed to score that high," Sakura babbled out. "Anyway, do you guys want to do anything else? It's only 2:30 but I have to be back home by 5."

"Curfew, princess?" Kiba asked with a smirk.

Sakura raised her eyebrow at the new nickname. She supposed it was better than pinky, but where the hell did he come up with that?

"You were being prissy at the store earlier, so I'ma call you princess from now on," Kiba said, his smirk evolving into a grin, and thought that this nickname would probably rile her up too. After seeing the damage she could do to a ramen bowl, he figured teasing her wouldn't be so bad as long as he didn't call her Pinky. She could be kind of cute when she was embarrassed or offended.

"Hm, well, if it means that you're going to do my bidding since I'm the _princess_, then I like it!" Sakura retorted, knowing Kiba wanted to piss her off, but liked her answer so much better.

"...Wha? Yeah right."

"it's fine, Kiba, that'll change once school starts. But I'm eating dinner with my brother later and he gets super impatient."

"I know! Let's go to Sasuke's house!" Naruto shouted.

'_Sasuke's house? Hm, I guess I could try to talk to him now, but it'll be difficult with these three hanging around. Oh well, if worse comes to worse, I'll push him in a closet again,'_ Sakura smiled at her thought. Ah she would never forget that time. Too funny, too funny.

"I'm down!" Sakura looked around at the other guys, but they didn't seem to care either way.

"What a drag. I was hoping to go home and take a nap…" Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"C'mon, Shikamaru! Sasuke has a really nice house with a pool and everything. You can sleep there if you want," said Chouji, trying to negotiate with his best friend.

Instead of answer, Shikamaru stood up and walked to the door while everyone else stared at him, not sure if he was accepting or declining the invitation.

"What are you guys waiting for? Are we going or not?"

Chouji and Naruto exchanged grins and the four of them got up, following Shikamaru out of the ramen shop.

"Lead the way, Naruto."

* * *

It had taken the group of five 20 minutes to reach Sasuke's house and Sakura found out that he didn't live all that far from the apartment; he lived further east from the school than she did. He had a pretty decent looking house too. It was a two-story navy and white house with a long driveway in front. _'I guess Sasuke's parents are pretty well off.'_ There were two cars parked by the side of the house as well. Sakura couldn't tell what make the cars were, but they looked shiny and expensive.

Naruto knocked loudly and impatiently at the door calling out _teme hurry up and open the door because damnit we brought Sakura over_!

The door suddenly opened and Naruto, who hadn't stopped knocking, had knocked on Sasuke's head. Sasuke scowled at the boy and pulled the door wider to see the idiots who came by his house.

"What do you want, dobe. I told you that I was busy today," answered Sasuke, wearing dark blue slim jeans and a deep purple polo.

'_Damn. I really hoping that there were two Uchiha Sasuke's around here. Ugh, why me?'_

Naruto pushed his way in, looked over his shoulder, and told Sasuke, "We were bored and didn't know what to do, so we came over."

Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba filed in behind Naruto. Shikamaru headed straight for the couch, Chouji asked if he could go into the kitchen to grab a snack, and Kiba was looking around and taking in Sasuke's house.

Sakura came in last and the two looked at each other. Not wanting the others to hear anything she didn't want them to know, Sakura tilted her head to the left and stuck out her hand.

"Hey, I'm Sakura. I just moved here. Sorry for the blonde idiot barging his way in like that."

'_Better to pretend I don't know him now and talk to him later. Sasuke's smart enough to pick up on that.'_

'_Hn looks like she doesn't want them to know either.'_

Sasuke grabbed her hand and shook it, letting her know that he understood what she was trying to do. "Sasuke. It's fine, I'm used to the idiot."

Sakura gave him a smile and walked in, trying to think of an excuse for her to talk to Sasuke alone.

"You guys can't stay. My parents are going to be back with Itachi soon and we have to do family stuff." Sasuke crossed his arms and looked at his friends, wanting them to leave so he could talk to Sakura.

"But we came all the way here! C'mon, Sasuke, you know you like us better than Itachi!" Naruto whined, not wanting to deal with Shikamaru and Kiba complaining about walking around so much.

"Too bad. Leave."

"You're so mean, teme, and we brought Sakura-chan all the way here too," Naruto pouted, but getting up and leaving with the rest of them.

"What a drag. You should've texted him beforehand to see if we could come," Shikamaru said and scowled at the blonde. "I'm going home then. See you later, Sasuke."

"I think I'm going to go home too, guys. I'm already tired and I don't want to be late meeting up with my brother," said Sakura, secretly planning on doubling back and talking to Sasuke.

With that, the boys and Sakura left Sasuke's house. As she was leaving, Sasuke tilted his head back towards his house and Sakura gave a slight nod. She was coming back in a little bit.

Sakura was trailing behind the other boys for a couple minutes before exclaiming that she forgot her phone at Sasuke's house and was going to go get it.

_No, you don't have to walk me back. No, really it's fine. No, I know the way there. Yes, I'll see you guys at school._

After answering the boys' questions, Sakura ran back to Sasuke's. _'I guess this was going to happen a lot sooner than I expected.'_

* * *

Sakura didn't have a chance to knock on Sasuke's door before he opened it and pulled her inside.

"Hey."

"…Hey yourself."

The two stared at each other until Sasuke let out a sigh and walked over to the couch to sit and talk to her.

"I didn't know you were moving here, or that you were from here in the first place," Sasuke started.

"My brother asked me to move back here, but it was after… everything happened."

"Aa." _'So she didn't come and follow me here then…'_ Sasuke thought, a bit disappointed at the revelation.

"I didn't know you were going to be here either."

"My parents found me and forced me to come back."

"Oh." Sakura knew that Sasuke had run away three years ago, tired of living in his brother's shadow and under his father's roof and was determined to live without them. "Is that why…?"

"Why I broke up with you? No. It wasn't."

"I see."

Sakura had met Sasuke during her first year in middle school, well, really just stared at him from afar since she had still been too timid under Kin's constant bullying. It had been when she was with the Sound Five that she actually met Sasuke and his gang Hebi.

Being in a gang and in a gang that was in Oto, their gangs were bound to clash and so they did. Hebi was comprised of three boys. Sasuke, Suigetsu (her old elementary classmate), and Juugo (a freakishly large boy whose demeanor didn't match his appearance). It turned out that one other member of Sound Five knew Suigetsu as well: Karin. Apparently the two had dated briefly during junior high, but things happened and words were said to cause the two to break up. Karin still nursed some resentment and longing for the boy, not that she would ever tell him that.

Karin had been able to gather some information on the group before they decided to face them and so the two were prepared. Karin, already known as the non-physical type, had hung in the background with Ukon and Kidomaru watching the two gangs confront each other, so Suigetsu didn't know that she was there. Sakura, on the other hand, being one of the fighters of the group, had been front and center for the confrontation. However, she sported a black hoodie with the hood up to conceal her hair. They wanted to keep this as impersonal as possible. This was a time to fight and gauge strength, not for reunions.

Since Hebi only had three fighting members (that they knew of, anyway), they had only sent out three of their fighters to make it an evenly matched fight. (Just because they were an Oto gang didn't mean that they didn't know how to fight fair). In front of Hebi stood Sakon (their best fighter after Kimimaro), Tayuya (their smartest long-range fighter), and Sakura (their most deceptive fighter). Soon, the two groups started fighting.

Sakon immediately went to face Suigetsu, hoping that his superior speed and hard punches would put a quick end to the blade-weilding youth. Tayuya then charged Juugo, knowing that out of the three, he was the least violent and impulsive fighter; he was more of a pacifist and she couldn't figure out why such a peace-loving boy would join a gang. Nevertheless, Tayuya had always been quick on her feet to think of strategies and plans and it would prove to be an advantage over the much bigger boy. That left Sakura to face Sasuke.

Sasuke frowned with irritation, thinking that the other gang was stupid enough to leave the weakest member for him to fight. He couldn't make out any features, but the small frame made him conclude that this wouldn't be much of a match.

Sakura, used to being underestimated, tilted her head to her left and made a beckoning motion with her right hand to Sasuke. '_Bring it on, pretty boy.'_

Sasuke decided to get it over with so he could help Suigetsu. The guy he was fighting was landing all of his hits, not leaving room for his friend to recover or go on the offense. He knew Juugo could handle himself. He was like a giant wall, withstanding anything you threw his way and never faltering. As long as Sasuke was around, Juugo wouldn't become too violent or bloodthirsty either. They weren't looking for bloodshed, just a typical gang fight for territory and bragging rights.

He charged Sakura, intending to knock her out and be done with it, but Sakura knew how to evade and dodge all of his attacks, making him realize that this wouldn't be a simple fight.

The six teens fought and grappled for 10 minutes and the spectators could already tell how everyone was faring in their fights.

Juugo was standing in the middle of the park, wildly looking around to discern where the music he heard was coming from. Tayuya, able to play her flute and move at the same time, was hiding behind trees and benches to disorient her opponent and strike him with her drug laced needles. Since he was bigger than her typical opponent, the drug was taking longer to act on the boy, but all Tayuya had to do was keep playing and running.

It appeared that Sakon and Suigetsu were evenly matched once the latter figured out how the former fought and matched him blow for blow. Sound Five had thought Suigetsu was only adept at wielding blades, but apparently he was also adept at close combat and the blades were just an accessory.

Over by the dumpster, Sasuke was gritting his teeth and trying to ignore the pain that blossomed around his rib cage when Sakura got a good, clean hit in. Sasuke, having thought that Tayuya was the only girl in the group, thought that Sakura was a very small male since her punches were so powerful. He vowed that he wasn't going to underestimate his opponent anymore.

As the fights progressed, eventually Juugo was subdued by the drugs and Ukon switched in for Sakon when Suigetsu wasn't paying attention, turning his brother's fight around. Sasuke was breathing heavily after Sakura got in another two solid punches, one to his spine and one to his nose. If this kept going, he knew he was going to lose. At that moment though, Kidomaru yelled out that trouble was headed their way and the fights ceased. Ukon, Tayuya, and Sakura knew that this only occurred when a bigger threat, one that they could not hope to overcome, was near and quickly made their way away from the park.

However, Sakura, who had always been the kind-hearted, compassionate girl of the group, took pity on Hebi and told Kidomaru and Jirobo to grab Suigetsu and Juugo, respectively, and get them to safety while she helped the Uchiha.

The danger that Kidomaru had warned them of had actually been the Ryuuchi gang, the biggest and most feared gang in Oto. Sakura knew that her cousin was involved in the gang and steered clear of it, afraid that he would find out that she was in the Sound Five. When the gang left the area, Sakura made a move to leave Sasuke and rejoin her friends when she noticed how shallow his breathing was and how pale he was. She knew that if she left him now, there was little chance he'd make it to tomorrow. Cursing her compassion, Sakura carried Sasuke to the "base" her friends had established and looked after Sasuke's wounds for the night.

Once he was conscious and realized what she had done for him, the two began a tumultuous friendship and their gangs were at peace with one another. Well, as much peace as they could get with Suigetsu and Karin being in the same room together again. Their friendship soon grew into something of a more romantic nature and they had started dating.

They had dated for two years, almost the entire time that Sasuke had been in Oto, when Sasuke had broken up with her, though he wouldn't tell her why. She had been heartbroken, but tried to put up a strong front and refused to cry in front of him or the rest of Hebi. She was better than that.

Now, here they were again, seeing each other again for the first time in nearly a year and… she didn't know what to say. What do you say to the boy who was the first person to hold your heart, the first person outside of your brother and your friends that you could trust, and the first person to squeeze your heart until there was nothing left to give? What are you supposed to do?

"Well, let's not talk about that. It was a long time ago."

"Hn."

'_Still as talkative as ever, I see.'_

"You and I both know why I'm here, to talk about what happened in Oto, right?"

Sasuke let out a sigh and nodded. "It's different here, Sakura. I can't be doing those things here. I can't let my family find out about that other life."

"I get it. I came to Konoha to escape all that stuff too. It's a different life here and we… we can't be who we were."

Sasuke sighed in relief. He was glad she felt the same way. One less loose end to tie up. He didn't want to think of the consequences his family would have for him if they ever found out about his time in Oto. For the time being, they only knew that he had left Konoha one evening and only his mother had been adamant on finding him and not his father. Never his father.

"So, can we agree to not talk about what happened back there? None of the bad stuff anyway. Naruto can be really nosy when he wants to be."

"Aa. Just hold some ramen in front of his face next time."

Sakura laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."

The two sat in the slightly less uncomfortable silence, thinking of the other and how they got to where they were now. Would they have done anything differently? Was it too late to change it somehow?

"Did Suigetsu and Juugo come with you too? We were wondering why we hadn't heard anything about Hebi for awhile."

"Taka."

"What?"

"We changed our name to Taka. Hebi was in Oto. Taka's in Konoha. But yeah, they moved here too."

"Where were you the last couple months though? Naruto said you were just transferring now, but you've been gone for a lot longer."

"We were looking for someone. Nothing you need to know about."

"Oh. Ok."

At least their… friendship (you could call this friendship, right?) didn't revert back to how it used to be when they first met. Sure, there was tension between the two, but Sasuke was speaking in full sentences to her and not making those "Sasuke-noises" all the time.

"Here."

Sakura looked over at Sasuke to see his phone in his outstretched arm, though Sasuke wasn't looking at her. She hesitated for a bit, but then grabbed his phone.

"I changed my number, so I need yours again," Sasuke offered as an explanation.

Sakura put in her number into his phone and sent herself a text message from it, feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket.

"Thanks. Well, I have to get back. Sasori's waiting for me. See you in school, Sasuke."

Sakura stood up and went to the door, making sure that she wouldn't really forget her phone here this time.

As she was about to leave, Sakura paused and turned back to Sasuke who was standing behind her at the door. "I… I'm glad to see you again, Sasuke. I think Konoha will be good for us, ne?" Sakura said and turned around again to leave.

"Sakura," Sasuke called out, making Sakura pause and face him again.

"Yeah?"

"I know it's a bit late but… happy birthday."

Sakura looked down and gave a sad smile, not wanting Sasuke to see her expression. "Yeah, thanks, Sasuke. Bye"

"Bye."

Sakura made her way down the winding driveway and couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke. He remembered her birthday… that had to mean that he still cared about her, even just a little bit, right? And he had been nice, for the most part. It was awkward, really awkward, but it was nice. Familiar.

Not wanting to think about it anymore lest she started crying, Sakura shook her head and set a quick pace back to the apartment. She wasn't going to think it now or ever again. It was over, Sasuke saw to it, and there wasn't anything left for her to do or fix. It was done. She was done and didn't want to hurt anymore.

Sighing, Sakura pulled her phone out to call Sasori and tell him she was on the way home. She still had 40 minutes until he expected her home, but better to let him know that she wasn't wandering aimlessly around.

Tomorrow was a new day and this was her new beginning. Having Sasuke here didn't change anything. Nope, not at all.

At least she hoped not.

* * *

Song: Anberlin - Stationary, Stationary

14/07/12

edit: 06/08/12


	3. Say Aah

Chapter 3: Say Aah

_Since we in the club for now (for now)  
Might as well get another round (round)  
Notice there ain't nothing in your cup  
So get here, baby, let me fill it up (fill it up)  
_

_Go girl, it's your birthday  
Open wide, I know you're thirsty  
Say aah (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)  
Say aah (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)_

* * *

**2012 March 30**

It had taken Sakura a little over half an hour to find her way home and the balls of her feet felt just _awful_. _'Ugh remind me not to wear sandals when I'm going to be walking long distances ever again.'_ She was relieved to reach the apartment complex and had sat down in the corner of the elevator for the journey up. She needed her comfy shoes like 2 hours ago.

"Niisan, I'm back!"

"We're in here."

As Sakura walked over to the kitchen, she felt someone creep up behind her and try to grab her, causing her to move on instinct from when she was on the streets. She grabbed their hand with her left, spun around, and elbowed them in the solar plexus while simultaneously letting of their hand so that they would fall down without taking her with them. She took up a defensive stance with bent knees, raised arms, and stared down at the attacker to see… Deidara?

"Ow! What the heck, yeah! Why'd you hit me for!"

Sakura, embarrassed for her actions, went over to Deidara and tried to help him up, but he just glared at her from his spot on the ground and ignored her helping hand.

"That was mean, Sakura-chan."

"I'm sorry! Really, really sorry! I didn't know it was you, Deidara, I swear!" Sakura said, trying to explain her herself and then accidentally backed herself into someone standing behind her.

"Remind me to never sneak up behind you then," a voice said from behind her. Sakura turned around and had to crane her neck up to see someone she had only seen on her computer monitor when she and Sasori would video chat.

"Kisame! What are you doing here, sharkbait?" Sakura cried out before hugging the huge man around his middle and looked up at him with a huge grin. He was wearing a pair of baggy jeans with a red and yellow button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up along with a white Under Armor shirt that went all the way up to his neck.

"Well, Deidara was _supposed_ to bring you in here so we could surprise you. We're here for your birthday, kitten."

"We? Who else is here with you?"

Kisame brought her into the kitchen and Sakura saw some of Sasori's friends that she had also "virtually" met.

"Konan-chan!" squealed Sakura, instantly going to the older girl and giving her a hug. "When did you get here? Are you staying long? Please say you'll sleep over! My room's big enough!"

The blue-haired girl laughed at Sakura and ruffled her hair. The girl was clad in a black sleeveless form-fitting halter-top that had mesh cutouts on her midriff along with baggy black pants.

"We got here a couple minutes ago after Sasori called us. We were supposed to come over yesterday, but you were moving in your things and unpacking, so we came over today instead."

Sakura nodded, accepting the girl's answer, and then looked around at the other people in the kitchen who were looking at the two girls with smirks and smiles on their faces after witnessing Deidara's blow to his ego and Sakura's excitement.

Beside her stood Konan and there were five other individuals standing around her in the kitchen. Sasori was standing on the other side of the kitchen near the window in a white button-up shirt and blue jeans while Deidara, dressed in a pair of jeans and a deep blue sweater, was standing near the doorway, rubbing his abdomen and sending a glare her way. Kisame stood behind Deidara, laughing at Deidara's misfortune and the interaction he just saw between her and Konan. Yahiko-san, Konan's longtime boyfriend, was standing next to Sasori watching the two. He was wearing a black blazer on top of a grey v-neck and skinny jeans. There was another man who seemed somewhat familiar to her, but she was sure that Sasori had only introduced these four people to her as his friends. She had seen Sasori's stepsiblings (were they considered _her_ stepsiblings too?) and a couple of his other friends, but never this one. He was dressed similar to Yahiko but with an all-black ensemble.

"Hello, Sakura-san. It's nice to finally be able to meet Sasori's precious little sister," Yahiko said, obviously trying to embarrass her brother.

"Yeah, it's nice to finally see Konan's favorite lover too," slyly replied Sakura, wanting to embarrass the couple and succeeding, if Konan's red cheeks were any indication.

"Anyway, this was _supposed_ to be a surprise for you, complete with us jumping out at you and all," Sasori started and glared at Deidara, "but since that didn't happen… Sakura, sit. I'll go get the cake."

Sakura took a seat at the table and Konan and Yahiko sat next to her on her right while Deidara took the second seat on her left and Kisame and the other guy sat down across from her. Said unknown guy inclined his head towards her and said, "Happy birthday, Sakura."

"Thank you. I'm sorry, you seem to know me, or at least my brother, but I don't know your name."

"I've only heard of you in passing myself. I'm one of Sasori's friends. Uchiha Itachi."

'_Uchiha?'_

2 Hours Ago

"_You guys can't stay. My parents are going to be back with Itachi soon and we have to do family stuff," Sasuke said._

"_But we came all the way here! C'mon, Sasuke, you know you like us better than your brother!" Naruto whined._

Present Time

'_Holy fuck. Homie's Sasuke's _brother_? He probably wouldn't have told his brother about… that or us or anything, would he? Naruto made it sound like he didn't like his brother all that much though so… maybe not? Ah, just chill, Sakura. Don't over think it. Just act like you don't know anything; you're not _that_ Sakura. No wonder he looked familiar though. He has that 'holier-than-thou' Uchiha aura around him.'_

"Oh, nice to meet you, Itachi-san."

At that moment, Sasori came out holding some sort of pink blob (she assumed that was her cake) on a large cardboard sheet. Konan started singing Happy Birthday to her and soon the others joined in. Sakura always hated this part the most, the birthday song, that is. So much attention and singing directed at her at once. She could've done without it, but waited for them to finish singing as Sasori placed the cake in front of her.

The cake turned out to be a pink chibi rabbit head, probably a homage to Usa-chan, Sakura's old favorite stuffed toy. It was adorable! She didn't have the heart to take a knife to it though, despite Deidara's cries to _cut the cake already so I can eat, yeah!_

"Sasori-nii… it's so cute! Thank you so much!"

Sasori smiled and was proud of himself for making her so happy. He had spent most of Wednesday baking it for her and had hidden it in Kisame's apartment so she wouldn't see it.

Sasori began cutting and distributing the cake amongst everyone gathered after Sakura pleaded with him to do it since she couldn't bring herself to and soon everyone was eating.

"Ne, Konan-oneechan, it's getting kinda late-"

"What are you talking about, yeah? It's only 6:30!"

"Shh!" Sakura shot Deidara a glare and turned to talk to Konan again. "As I was saying before princess so _rudely_ interrupted me… (Hey! Don't call me "princess", yeah!) Do you want to stay over? We can finally have that sleepover!"

Sasori had met Konan, and by extension Yahiko and Nagato, in middle school and had introduced Sakura to them one afternoon when they were studying together. Konan was only older than Sakura by 4 years, the youngest of the three friends, and Sakura looked up to her like the older sister she wished she had (though Sasori would like to think that having an older brother would be enough).

Konan was an only child and had grown up with her two childhood friends, Yahiko and Nagato. The two, both being males, had failed to satisfy Konan's need for female companionship, but she was able to find that in Sakura. Konan was the only person Sakura trusted with (most of) her secrets and similarly, Sakura was privileged to know some of Konan's fears, hopes, and dreams. The two regularly talked once a week and had discussed doing all of those girly things that they had seen in movies or read in books since they never had the chance to do so before.

Karin was usually the one who suggested having sleepovers, but Sakura didn't want to leave her mother alone for the night on the off chance she would be gone the next morning when Sakura returned. She had a lot of shopping trips though, courtesy of Karin. Tayuya, on the other hand, had been the one who grimaced at doing those "princess activities" and couldn't host them anyway with her five brothers around. Konan had the same problem with Nagato and Yahiko along with the lack of female friends. However, now seemed like the perfect time to remedy this for the two.

Konan smiled at her "little sister," glad that she had met Sasori and subsequently Sakura. "We actually live down the hall in 301, so we can do sleepovers whenever you want."

"We? You and Yahiko?"

"Yes, with the white door. The others live on this floor as well. Kisame's cousin is the landlord and allowed Kisame and his friends to stay on this floor," answered Konan.

"Itachi and I live in 303 with the red door," Kisame told Sakura.

"Does anyone I know live in the other ones?"

"You met Hidan before. He lives in 304 with his friend, Kakuzu, and two of Itachi's cousins live together in 307 next to us. Zabuza-san painted each door on each floor a different color to avoid any confusion," answered Sasori.

Sakura nodded, trying to remember the living arrangements. "That's so nice of your cousin, Kisame! Why didn't you invite them to come too, niisan?"

"They're celebrating Hidan's birthday right now. We were going to do yours yesterday and Hidan's today, but ended up doing both of yours on the same night."

"Oh," Sakura said with a pout. She didn't realize that she had messed up everyone's plans, even if it was unintentional. "Then you can go to Hidan's thing now! We already finished the cake, so it's ok!"

"Don't worry about it, kitten. He's going to have a birthday weekend and party for the next three nights. We have plenty of time to go with him," Kisame said, trying to make Sakura stop worrying.

"Besides, what about that sleepover?" Konan asked with a smile. "I'm sure Yahiko wouldn't mind staying over here with Sasori and Deidara while you and I go back to my apartment. Right, guys?" Konan looked pointedly at the three aforementioned males, as if daring them to contradict what she just said.

"Of course not."

"No problem, yeah."

"You girls go have fun."

Konan and Sakura grinned at how fast the three acquiesced and moved over to the couch in the living room to talk about what they were going to do later tonight.

"Do you have any ice cream, Konan-chan? Or movies? I have some DVDs but they're mostly comedy or chick flicks."

"I think we still have some green tea and vanilla ice cream. If you want another flavor, we can get some. I can watch anything, I don't mind. Just no action movies."

"OK! I'll bring them all over. Oh, oh! Can I do your nails too? I've been practicing and I can do some designs now! Just geometric shapes and some simple stuff, nothing too fancy."

"Sure, but only if I can do yours too."

"Let me go get some stuff ready. I'll be right back!" Sakura said and then ran into her room to presumably prepare a bag of things for the sleepover.

"You spoil the girl too much, you know," Yahiko said, leaning over the back of the couch to lay his head on top of hers.

"Says the man who let her flick some of her frosting on his nose," Konan laughed and smiled up at her boyfriend. "I think you might have some right here." Konan tapped her finger on his nose and kissed his cheek.

"Hm. You're lucky I'm such a nice guy."

"You mean whipped, yeah?" asked Deidara, large smile on his face.

"Oh don't be mean, Deidara, or I'll never hear the end of it," Konan said while throwing her hands up and then looked over to see Yahiko chasing Deidara around the living room, yelling _I dare you say that again to my face, princess!_

'_Oh well, too late.'_

* * *

Sakura was trying to find her medium-sized duffel bag to carry all of the things she would need for the night. Sure, she could just walk down the hallway in case she forgot anything, but she didn't want to risk Sasori making her stay or Yahiko-san slipping back in while she was away.

She only needed a pair of pajamas, the DVDs, her nail polish box, toiletries, and the stuffed scorpion Sasori had given her all those years ago. She wondered if he still had Usa-chan, but reasoned that he was a grown man now and probably put in a box somewhere. It was pink and screamed "girly", after all.

Just as she finalized what to bring over, she heard some weird noises from outside. _'It sounds like… Deidara screaming? And a growling dog?'_

Sakura went outside to see… Deidara hiding behind a laughing Kisame who was trying to fend off an angry-looking Yahiko who was also being held back by her brother wearing a "why me" expression on his face. Konan was sitting on the couch laughing at the boys and Itachi sat in the kitchen drinking a cup of something. Sakura went over to the couch and whispered, "I feel like I missed something important here."

"Nope. Just Deidara being an idiot and Yahiko trying to defend his ego. Same old, same old," Konan responded nonchalantly.

"Oh. Yep, nothing new," Sakura agreed with a nod. She had been privy to a few of these "bromance" episodes when Sasori would leave his web camera on and it was usually Deidara or Tobi who took the brunt of the teasing and "love taps" from the other boys. "Do you want to get something to eat first? I've only eaten ramen and cake the entire day."

"Yeah, sure. I've been craving some fish."

Sakura and Konan slipped out when Yahiko finally got a hold on Deidara's hair and yanked on it. Quite hard. The last thing the two heard were profanities from Deidara and a very satisfied laugh from Yahiko. The two girls shook their heads at the boys' antics and stepped into the elevator, on their way to dinner.

* * *

"Now what did we learn today?"

Sigh. "Leader-sama is not whipped. He is simply a very kind and adoring boyfriend, yeah."

The boys in their group all referred to Yahiko as their leader for he was one of the oldest and he, along with Nagato and Konan, had been the one to bring them all together.

"Good. Now was that so hard?"

"Is it so hard to admit tha- mmf!"

Sasori slapped his hand on Deidara's mouth, not wanting to deal with _another round of chasing_ that would ensue should Deidara finish his sentence. The two glared at each other before Sasori turned and told Yahiko, "He gets it."

Yahiko grinned and turned to the living room only to find one pretty blue-haired girl missing from the immediate vicinity. "Konan? Konan!"

"She and Sakura left while you were chasing Deidara," Itachi supplied, preventing the man from freaking out over the disappearance of his precious girlfriend.

"Oh," Yahiko said with a pout. "She didn't even say bye."

"They said something about dinner and fish. They probably went to Zabuza's place."

"And _no_, we shouldn't follow them," Kisame said immediately after to try to put a stop to what he knew would be Yahiko's suggestion to join them for dinner. They wanted girl time and he wasn't going to intrude on that. Konan (_and_ Sakura) could be really scary sometimes, not that he would ever admit it out loud.

Yahiko puffed out his cheeks and stuck his bottom lip out even further. "Fine, but only this once!"

The males all rolled their eyes at their "leader's" forlorn look at the loss of his girlfriend. It wasn't like he didn't already spend every single waking minute with her anyway…

"C'mon, let's go to the club. Zabuza will take care of them and knowing Hidan, he'll be making his rounds soon," suggested Sasori while he grabbed his car keys and slipping on a pair of forest green Creative Recs. "I'll DD (**1**). Deidara, do you want to go?"

"I guess, yeah. We can pick up drunk chicks, yeah," Deidara replied with a smile. He wouldn't be able to purchase alcohol for another two years; he, Tobi, and Sasori were the only ones in the group who couldn't as they were all 18. No big deal though, it was still funny watching them make fools out of themselves when they were drunk.

Sasori rolled his eyes at his friend's response. The day that Deidara could actually pick up _anyone_…

"I will have to decline. I am expected back at my parent's house for dinner," Itachi stated.

"No problem, yeah. We'll make sure Kisame drinks enough for the both of you," Deidara told Itachi and threw his arm around Kisame's neck. At least he tried but he kept forgetting that Kisame was nearly a foot taller than he was so his arm usually went awkwardly around Kisame's arm…

'_The idiot,' _they collectively thought.

"Hn," Itachi... grunted? Hummed? Did that weird Uchiha noise thing? …before he left.

"Can we stop by Up 'N Down (**2**) before going to the bar?" Yahiko asked, rubbing his stomach. "I don't want to drink on an empty stomach."

"Yeah, sure. Let's go. You guys better not throw up in my car though," Sasori warned.

"Of course not!" Kisame and Yahiko chimed in together. When Sasori turned his back to them, the two shared a look knowing that it was entirely possible and probable that they would be doing just that. Not that Sasori needed to know that or anything.

* * *

"Ne, where are we going, Konan-chan?" Sakura asked from the passenger side. She didn't think Konan would accept her offer for a ride on her motorcycle, so the two were riding in Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato's Honda Civic.

"This restaurant called the 'Turtles In Flight.' The landlord of the apartment complex is also the owner of the restaurant."

"Turtles in Flight? That sounds like a fish store or something!"

"Zabuza's boyfriend came up with the name and it stuck. They have really good seafood there, plus Zabuza gives us a discount since we're Kisame's friends."

"That's sort of impressive though, running a restaurant and a bunch of apartments at the same time. Must keep him busy."

"Their entire family helps run it, probably helps a lot. We help out at the apartments sometimes, like fixing the fixtures and pipes. It was a win-win situation for all of us."

"It's like one big happy family, ne?"

Konan laughed at that. "Yeah, I guess we are family, just a really weird one."

* * *

Konan pulled into the parking lot for Turtles in Flight, a nice-looking establishment with glass windows on the storefront and blue, green and yellow color scheme, and the two walked in, their stomachs ready to be fed.

"Now who do we have here?" a man asked as he approached them. He was very tall, as tall as Kisame, and was wearing a white mask over the lower half of his face, a pair of blue cut-offs, and a grey unbuttoned sleeveless shirt.

"Zabuza-san, this is Sakura. She's Sasori's little sister."

'_Oh, the landlord and restaurant owner? He looks different from what I imagined. He looks dangerous.'_

"Nice to meet you, Sakura. Now, do you want the usual table, Konan, or something closer to the bar?"

"The usual table. I want to introduce Sakura to Haku."

"You know where to go then," he said as he walked away and gave them a backwards wave. He seemed very laidback and Konan seemed very comfortable with him around, even if Sakura would consider him to be a threat.

Sakura followed Konan through the restaurant, which was relatively full with the dinner rush hour, to a booth in the corner facing the doors. Konan gave Sakura a menu for her to peruse and began suggesting some of the dishes there.

"Now, I would recommend the flame-broiled fish, but you can try some of mine if you like. Generally, everything is pretty good here. I wouldn't recommend the blowfish or the eel though if you're not up for it."

"Do they have any sweet and sour fish? Or just something not spicy."

"The sweet and sour fish then. I've heard their tempura ice cream is also very good here if you want to try that afterwards."

"If I have any room in my stomach left," Sakura replied with a laugh. She had to keep in mind not to eat as much and not as fast as she had earlier. Hopefully the fish would be enough for her.

Sakura began looking around the restaurant to get a better look at it. The floor was made out of cement and it looked as if Zabuza painted it to look like the ocean floor, if the ocean was filled with cute anime-looking octopi, fish, turtles (of course), and other sea creatures. The walls were painted with a gradient from top to bottom of pastel blue to yellow to sea green and there were random sea memorabilia lining the walls, such as a fake seaweed, a skipper's hat, and nets. _'He really kept to the theme. Very ocean-esque.'_

Soon a waitress came up to take their order. The waitress was _extremely_ pretty with her long black hair, big round brown eyes, and the pink and maroon kimono that she was wearing. Perhaps this was the Haku that Konan and Zabuza-san were talking about before?

"Hello, Konan-san, Sakura-san. My name is Haku. It is very nice to meet you," Haku said in a soft, quiet voice. _'Wow, she is so polite and pretty and soft. It's like she's the perfect Japanese woman.'_

"You know you don't have to be formal around us, Haku," Konan said, wanting Haku to relax.

"I know, Konan-chan," she answered with a smile. She then turned to Sakura and asked, "Would you like to place an order?"

"Oh, yes. Can I get an order of the sweet and sour fish and a miso soup please?"

"Of course. Flame-broiled fish, Konan-chan?"

Konan's answer was to smile and laugh, both knowing that Konan _always_ got flame-broiled fish here; it was her favorite dish. "You know me so well, Haku-kun."

'_Haku… _kun?_ What? Haku's a _boy_? That is seriously one pretty boy then. I wonder if he gets mistaken for a girl often…"_

"I will be back with your orders soon," Haku told them before leaving their table.

"Ne, ne, Konan-chan. Is Haku a girl or a boy?" Sakura asked once Haku was out of earshot.

Konan smiled at Sakura, already used to this question when it came to Haku. "Haku-kun is a boy. He's Zabuza-san's boyfriend."

Sakura stared back and forth between Konan and Haku with wide eyes, not believing that the feminine boy was, well, a boy.

"I know, no one else believed it at first either."

Sakura nodded at what Konan said, reminding herself to ask Haku what he did to get such a nice complexion and soft-looking hair.

Soon, the two began talking about Sakura's eventful move in day and her impromptu reunion with Naruto the day before as well as meeting her friends again this morning.

"Ne, Konan-chan, does Itachi-san have any siblings or cousins?"

Konan smiled slyly at the younger girl and asked, "Why? Looking for a boyfriend already? You work fast, Sakura-chan."

"No! Nothing like that. I was just wondering because he seemed familiar."

"If you say so," she answered in a teasing tone. "But yes, Itachi-kun has a younger brother and some cousins around your age, like Tobi. If you want, I can introduce you to them. Maybe we can do double dates," the girl said and continued to tease Sakura about her sudden interest in Itachi's family.

"Konan-chan!" Sakura whined.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I believe his younger brother moved back recently and is going to Fire Academy with you. Come to think of it, I think he was in Oto before. Maybe that's who you saw."

"Is his name Sasuke by chance?"

"Yes, it is. So you did meet him," Konan asked, interest piqued at the connection. _'Maybe Sasuke can help Sakura get over her last boyfriend.'_

Even though Sakura and Konan had shared many secrets with the other, Sakura had always refrained from naming names to her brother and to Konan. She was afraid that either they would know she wasn't who they thought she was and be extremely disappointed in her or that her friends would be upset with her for giving away their identities. Sure, in Oto you wanted your name to get around to earn some respect from the other gangs, but that was in Oto. You didn't want people in other cities to know you for what you did or didn't do in Oto. Some people didn't care either way about it, but she knew her friends did; all of them had plans to eventually move far, far away from Oto and leave this part of their life behind like she had. Due to this, Konan didn't know that Sasuke _was_ the boyfriend that she wanted Sakura to forget after what had happened.

"Yeah, I sort of did."

"Well, isn't that nice. You have more friends here than you thought you did before!"

Before Sakura had a chance to say anything to Konan, Haku came back over with two cups of tea and Sakura's miso soup. While Sakura ate her soup, Konan was filling her in on her recent academic endeavors.

Konan had been accepted into and attended University of Konoha's School of Technology, Kyuumure five years ago. Kyuumure was the only campus that accepted students graduating from middle school into its program. Konan had been one of the few students who passed the entrance exam for the program and was accepted (**3**). She had studied civil engineering at the school with the intention of attending Sanmure, the University's School of Architecture, to continue her education and obtain her Master and Ph. D degrees in the field. Kyuumure had an intense and rigorous academic program, which caused a handful of Konan's classmates to drop out of the program and continue on with their high school education. However, Konan had persevered under the watchful eyes of Yahiko and Nagato as well as under the guidance of her "father."

She had graduated from Kyuumure this past year and was currently enrolled to attend Sanmure; her first term would be next Monday.

"It's like I'm never going to be finished with school at this rate. It's just classes on top of other classes on top of harder classes," Konan finished with a sigh.

"And what, miss out on all that fun and studying?," Sakura grinned. She knew that Konan hadn't wanted to take the "easy way" into architecture; she wanted to take the longer, albeit more difficult, route.

Konan had explained to Sakura that when she, Yahiko, and Nagato were growing up, the three shared one overarching goal of helping those who could not help themselves, like how they had been in the orphanage. They hadn't wanted anyone else to suffer like they had. Yahiko had been the instigator and soon Yahiko's dreams, goals, and ambitions became Nagato's, who had looked up to the older boy as an older brother. Konan, then, had wanted to become the bridge that could support the two in their endeavors, regardless of where she would end up or what she had to do. As she got older, this wish "to _be_ a bridge to support them" became "to _build_ bridges to support others" and it only made sense to her to get into architecture.

However, she hadn't wanted to simply go into architecture; she wanted to understand the underlying mechanics and physics behind the work that it took to build these bridges, buildings, and roads. As such, it made sense for her to study civil engineering before delving into architecture. She hadn't been sure she would've been able to pass the entrance exam to attend Kyuumure (she had heard the horror stories of how difficult it was; many refused to take it based on those rumors alone) and would have accepted her fate of not studying civil engineering, but she had gotten in.

"At least I wasn't the only one going through all of that though. Itachi-kun did the program with me too, but he was a year ahead of me."

"Did he study civil engineering too?"

"No, he studied mechanical engineering. His family deals with manufacturing equipment for the government and he wanted to learn more about the engineering behind it to improve on the company's designs. Now he's studying business in Nimure to take over the company later."

"Wow, I feel so unaccomplished next to you two. You two have such great ambitions and have done so many great things."

"Don't sell yourself short, Sakura-chan! Didn't you want to get into the medical field? We might be building things, but you'll be the one healing people. That in itself is admirable as well."

Sakura colored pink at Konan's praise even though she wasn't sure if she would make it or meet anyone's expectations. Still, it was her goal to get into the medical field and make it as a doctor.

"Well, we'll see. I still have to graduate high school!"

"You're right. I wonder how the boys are. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't try to follow us here."

Sakura shrugged, not knowing why they would follow or what they could be doing instead. "Maybe they found something else to do."

"As long as they're staying out of trouble."

* * *

Sasori was sitting towards the back of the club sipping his orange juice and watching his friends make utter fools of themselves. By the time their group had arrived around 9, his car smelled like the inside of the burger joint from the joint burping effort of Deidara, Kisame, and Yahiko. Why he was friends with such idiots was beyond him sometimes.

Their other friends had just arrived at their favorite bar, Shuriken, 20 minutes before they had. They had decided to pregame at their friend Hana's apartment before coming. Hana's birthday was a week after Hidan's and, knowing Hidan and their friends, she knew that their goal would be to get smashed by the end of the night. Not wanting to wake up her roommates by being a drunken mess later, she decided to drink now and sober up later at the bar.

There were, in total, fifteen of them at the bar celebrating Hidan and Hana's birthday that night. Tobi, who was turning 18 this year and one of Itachi's cousins, had driven with Hidan, Kakuzu, Zetsu, and Nagato – all people of their "inner group." Hayate had driven his girlfriend Yuugao along with Hagane and Izumo; the former two had gone to school with Hidan and the latter two with Kakuzu. Lastly, Shisui, another one of Itachi's cousins, had walked here with his girlfriend Hana from her apartment.

During the first hour that they had been there, everyone (excluding the minors and Hayate) had taken celebratory shots with Hidan and Hana and had knocked back a couple beers. At one point Hidan and Kisame had even walked around the bar and asked random people to take a birthday shot with them. Hana chose to pass this up in favor of sitting with her boyfriend. Hidan and Kisame never missed an opportunity to drink, it seemed.

Now after a couple hours in, Hidan was doing more birthday shots (though at this point Sasori thought they were just doing shots for the sake of doing it) with Kisame, Hagane, and Izumo. The two couples were sitting together on the other side of the booth talking and nursing their drinks. Hayate's body was relatively weak in relation to his ability to fight off infections and digest alcohol, so he usually drove his friends around when they went out drinking. Sasori had asked him about it before, but the man didn't seem to mind all that much with all the entertainment his friends would offer him a couple drinks in. Sasori wholeheartedly agreed with this since that was what he had done for the past three years for them.

Yahiko and Nagato usually didn't drink that much since they would have to deal with an irate and frustrated Konan if they were drunk once they got home. _'And they try to tell us that they're not whipped,'_ Sasori thought with a mental eye roll. The two were now over at the bar drinking a beer while talking and watching TV.

Deidara and Tobi had wandered off to a random table of girls to try to pick them up. The two got along terribly together with Tobi constantly pulling childish pranks and Deidara constantly yelling at him for messing something up. Despite that, they were actually good friends, similar to how he and Deidara were. However, nothing they could do would make up for their lack of social skills when it came to women. Tobi was too forward and Deidara too temperamental.

So, all in all, most of his friends were drunk or very close to it, making a fool out of themselves (Deidara) by _trying_ to picking up random girls, or spectating like he was currently doing.

Joining him at the "pussy bitch ass" table, as Hidan dubbed them, were Zetsu and Kakuzu. The former had an extremely high metabolic rate and the amount of alcohol it took to make Kisame _and_ Hidan drunk only gave him a slight buzz, so he opted to avoid drinking at bars where the drinks were expensive and the ethanol content low. The latter simply hated spending money and often chose to watch his friends instead. He was currently doing neither, but was browsing through eBay and recent stock market reports. The man never stopped thinking about money.

"Come on, bitches! Is that the best you can do?" Hidan shouted from the next table over, cheeks red from the alcohol. He had already unbuttoned his shirt to compensate for the heat the alcohol generated in his body and was ordering another round of shots. Something called an alien brain hemorrhage. That sounded absolutely… disgusting. And weird.

Sasori sighed. Ever since he had joined them, he had, on more than one occasion, watched them try to drink the others under the table, usually when they insisted on visiting the bars for every legally drinking person's birthday. Zetsu, when he decided to partake in the activities, always won these contests with Kisame as his successor for when he didn't. Sasori wasn't especially looking forward to his 20th birthday. Maybe he could go on vacation far, far away from here for a couple weeks until they forgot.

Shisui, seeing the exasperated and tired look that Sasori was giving the four drunks, leaned over to whisper, "I hope you're not thinking of skipping out on the festivities for your birthday next year, Sasori-kun. You can expect a lot of alcohol, some puking, and a major hangover come next November."

Sasori glanced over at Shisui with a disgruntled look, displeased that the man figured out what he was thinking and already trying to circumvent his plans. "We shall see," he replied. He looked at the clock on his phone to see the numbers 11:43 glaring up at him.

Sasori groaned at the realization that it had _already been 3 hours_ and he, along with the other sober people, would have the honor of escorting the drunk into their cars and then back home. It might even involve some cleaning of puke.

'_I hope that at least Sakura and Konan are having fun,'_ Sasori thought before ordering another nonalcoholic drink for himself.

* * *

**A/N: The following is a passage from an R-rated movie (Sakura and Konan are watching movies, remember?). I know that this story was rated T anyway, but fair warning here! If you want to skip it, just go down to the next pair of asterisks.

"_Show us, show us, show us!"_

"_Ok. Um… alright. You see. The first you do is you gotta… grab… the thing here. Not too tight or you'll get calluses. Ok? Then you want to look that little sucker… in the eye and go, 'Come here, come here, little guy. Come here, little earthworm you. Come here, oh yeah, do you like that, huh? I learned that from an Eskimo porn. Then, I'm going to teach you guys to deep throat it. You want to make sure your passage is clear all the way from your throat to your chin and you're gonna place the… thing here. And you just wanna... Oh yeah, you like that, huh? You little freak. Coochi coochi coo!"_

"_Guys like that…?"_

**A/N: safe!

Sakura was leaning onto Konan for support as they both lost it with laughter at the movie while Haku went to make more popcorn. The two had decided to watch White Chicks (_"You haven't seen it, Konan-chan? But it's like, a classic!"_) and had reached the part where the two male black officers dressed as two female white socialites were having a slumber party with the socialites' friends. One of the two officers was demonstrating the "proper way to pleasure a man" to the other girls and it was _hilarious_! Seriously, that movie should be considered a classic. Nothing could bring Sakura more joy than this movie (well, nothing that she could think of right now).

After they had finished eating, the two stuck around to talk to Zabuza and Haku, both of whom Sakura now considered her friends. Zabuza seemed like, well, for lack of a better word, a male tsundere (**4**) towards Haku. It was ridiculously cute and funny to watch the two interact with Haku's soft-spoken nature and Zabuza's "manly" persona. While talking to the two, Sakura had learned of how the two had met and eventually ended up together. It seemed like the type of story to be in a drama or anime or something like that.

Haku had been born and raised in Kiri in a Japanese teahouse and hot springs where he had been groomed to take it over once he was of age. However, the teahouse had been ransacked and burned down to the ground by a group of guests who had stayed there with the intention of stealing from Haku's parents. Haku's parents and the teahouse's workers were killed that night. Luckily, Haku's parents had hidden him in an unused hot spring in the back where the firderers (fire/murderers, **5**) failed to check.

Haku, left without a place to go to or a family to call his own, wandered the streets to survive. Zabuza had been traveling the country at the time when he met Haku and took pity on the boy, who he, at the time, believed to be a girl. The two traveled together for a couple years before settling down in Konoha because Haku, having never been to school, expressed a longing for it. Now the two have been together for 14 years and the two planned to apply for a domestic partnership once Haku finished college. Haku was currently a first-year student at Gomure for pharmacy. Sakura was immediately interested in this since this was where she hoped to go to as well. Haku had promised to tell Sakura stories of his college experience and guide her once she was enrolled.

After the four had finished talking, Zabuza and Haku went to close the restaurant while Sakura and Konan returned to Konan's apartment for their girl's night. Konan had jokingly told Zabuza to release Haku once in awhile so the boy could have some fun and he had muttered that if Haku wanted to join them later, then he could.

Once they returned to the apartment, the two showered and got ready for their night. Haku had shown up some time when Sakura was taking a shower and she was ecstatic that the boy could join them (even though it's a "girl's night," neither girl minded Haku's presence). Now, the three were enjoying the remainder of White Chicks as well as whatever was left of the popcorn and ice cream. Sakura had been shocked that the two had never heard of dipping their French fries _or_ popcorn in ice cream and had insisted that they try it that night. She was intensely pleased with herself for broadening their food palette for the rest of their lives. You could dip virtually _anything_ in ice cream and it would be delicious!

During the movie, Sakura had painted Konan's nail a nice gradient of grays, Konan's favorite color. Her thumbs were the darkest shade of gray while her pinkies were the lightest shade. Sakura had only recently discovered how to do this and she was proud with how it turned out. Konan in turn, had painted Sakura's nails with three different shades of pastels – coral pink, pastel blue, and pastel green to watch Sakura's hair and eyes – and topped them with white like a French manicure. Unlike a typical manicure, however, Konan had painted them on at a slant to make it seems as if her nails were snow-capped. Both girls were pleased with how it turned out. Haku had declined their offers of painting his nails, stating that they would be ruined anyway since he worked at the restaurant.

Once Haku returned from the kitchen with more popcorn, the three finished the rest of the movie, already at the part the girls were at the beach and Kevin/Brittany was talking to the reporter.

It took another hour for them to finish the movie and it seemed the three were crashing from their earlier sugar high. Haku, now wearing one of Zabuza's shirts and a pair of shorts, was curled up on one end of the couch while Konan and Sakura were trying to clean up without waking the boy up.

It was already past midnight and the two brought out bedrolls, blankets, and pillows out to the living room to prepare for bed. Konan placed a fluffy blanket on Haku as well so the boy wouldn't get too cold during the night. Sakura had her trusty red and brown scorpion at her side like she had for the past 12 years. There wasn't a night when she was without it. After the three were tucked in, Sakura and Konan turned towards each other to talk a bit before sleeping.

"Ne, ne, Konan-chan. I have a secret to tell you."

"What is it, Sakura-chan?"

"You know how I told you that I was planning on taking my driver's test before moving here and everything?"

Konan nodded and asked, "Is your secret that you passed?" _'Maybe we should have chipped in to buy her a car for her to drive to school as a birthday gift. Hm, we could still probably do it if there's a car that we could all agree on.'_

"No!" Sakura yelled/whispered, interrupting Konan's train of thought. "Well, yes, I passed, but that's not my secret."

"Then what is it?"

"Konan-chan, don't freak out, but... I got a motorcycle!"

"…A what?"

"Um a motorcycle, Konan-chan," Sakura replied, fearful that the older girl was going to scold her.

"You… got a motorcycle."

Nod.

"You're 16. And you got a motorcycle."

Hesitant nod.

"Where did you even get the money for that?"

"Oh, my friends in Oto. They got me a nice deal," Sakura half-lied.

"Does Sasori know?"

"Yeah, you should've seen his and Deidara's face when I showed up with it. I swear Deidara's jaw almost fell to the ground and Sasori kept glaring at the thing like it ran over his puppy."

Konan tried to imagine it and had to admit, it was kind of funny, but back to the matter at hand. "Well. As much as we would prefer for you to drive something safer, like something with four doors, windows and locks, I can't really say anything since you already have it."

Sakura averted her eyes downward, sad that Konan seemed disappointed in her and her choices.

"However," Konan continued, seeing Sakura's crestfallen expression, "I might take a liking for it if you offered me a ride on it some time."

Sakura looked up at Konan, surprised that she would trust Sakura enough to ride with her and happy that Konan didn't seem upset with her.

"Yeah, sure! Whenever you want, Konan-chan. Just don't tell Yahiko-san or Nagato-san. I'm sure they would yell at me for ages," Sakura added, scrunching up her nose at the thought.

Konan laughed quietly, still mindful of the sleeping Haku, and agreed not to tell her very, very overprotective boys.

The two talked for another 20 minutes or so before deciding to go to sleep so they could wake up at a decent time tomorrow. They didn't want the boys walking in on them still sleeping in the morning. Who knows what their evil minds would do to three unsuspecting sleepover goers.

Before Sakura went to sleep though, she checked her phone for messages. Her phone had vibrated a couple times during dinner and the movie and she had ignored it to not be rude to Konan or Haku. Now though she had time to answer them.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Kimimaro  
hey Sakura. how's my favorite little monster

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
hey sakurachan, did you get home ok from temes house?

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
oh and do you want to come to hinata's house tmrw? her familys having a party

Kimimaro had called all of them his "little monsters" because, well, sometimes they acted like it with their pranks and random play fights with one another. Sakura had been his "favorite" because she was the only sane one between Tayuya and Karin. She was a nice middle ground between Karin's girly behavior and Tayuya's aggressive attitude. Even though she knew Kimimaro would already be asleep (he required 10+ hours to rest and recover from his daily activities), she decided to text him back so he would see it in the morning.

**To**: Kimimaro  
**From**: Sakura  
Good morning, Kimi-chan~ I'm ok so far. I celebrated my birthday with Sasori and his friends today and I had a lot of fun! Sorry it took me so long to reply though ):

Next, she went to reply to Naruto. She didn't know whether or not he would be awake or if she would accidentally wake him up, but took the chance.

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Sakura  
Yes, I got home ok. I was busy with my brother and didn't check my phone, sorry. I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow yet, but I'll go if I can. Where is Hinata's house and what time should I be there?

She didn't know who the girl was, but she wasn't opposed to going to a party. She would meet the girl tomorrow and might be able to add another female to her extremely small group of female friends.

Sakura let out a yawn and sleepily blinked her eyes. Well, she could think about all of that tomorrow. She was going to follow Haku and Konan's lead and finally get some sleep.

Soon, only the sounds of three individuals' soft breathing could be heard in Konan's apartment.

* * *

A/N:

(1) DD = designated driver. The legal drinking age is 20 and both Sasori and Deidara are still underage to drink. Boo for them.

(2) I have no idea what kind of food or restaurants are available in Japan so "Up 'N Down" is a play on a fast food restaurant in California called "In 'N' Out." Kudos to anyone who realized that!

(2) I went on Wikipedia to read up on how the school system works in Japan and the School of Technology is actually legit – I swear I'm not making it up. Students can skip the 3 years of high school and attend the college for 5 years to earn their Associate credential. This is the route Konan and Itachi took.

(4) In case you didn't know what tsundere means, it refers to a female character who is usually very tough, blunt, and cold but whose personality does a 180 turn whenever she is around her love interest. If you remember how Zabuza treated Haku before he died and then after he died, that's pretty much it.

(5) Firderer is a reference to Psych, if you happen to watch it.

Song: Trey Songz - Say Aah

17/07/12

edit: 06/08/12


	4. Girl Fight

Chapter 4: Girl Fight

_There she go talkin' her mess  
All around town makin' me stress  
I need to get this off my chest  
And if her friend want some then she'll be next_

_It really ain't that complicated  
Y'all walking around looking all frustrated  
Want some plex? Come on, let's make it  
Ya acting real hard, but I know ya fakin'_

_Know you really don't wanna step to this  
Really don't know why you talkin' shit  
You 'bout to catch one right in the lip  
It's about to be a what?  
Girl fight!_

* * *

**31 March 2012**

"_Hey! Scotty doesn't know that Fiona and me do it in my van every Sunda-"_

Sasuke reached over to turn off his iHome that was currently playing Lustra's "Scotty Doesn't Know." It was the only song Sasuke had that would guarantee that he would wake up once it went off. It probably had something to do with the loud screaming in the intro…

Sasuke continued to lie in his bed for a couple extra minutes to prepare himself for the day. His family had been invited to attend a birthday party at the Hyuuga estate later today and he was both looking forward to it as well as dreading it. His family and the Hyuuga family were distant cousins and had always fought over control and dominance in the business sector and this rivalry extended from the companies to the families. His father always pushed him to outdo the two eldest Hyuuga children since Itachi was far too old to compete with them now. It was, as Shikamaru would say, such a drag.

On the one hand, he would be able to see his friends again.

He and Neji had a somewhat tense friendship since both boys didn't tend to say much, didn't do much, and didn't play much. However, there was a sense of camaraderie between the two rather apathetic boys and they had gotten along pretty well throughout elementary school. He wasn't sure if that would be the same now since they hadn't seen each other or kept in touch these past three years though.

The Hyuuga heiress was a different matter altogether. The two had basically grown up together despite the animosity their family's had. He had initially tried to ignore her, not wanting to deal with any more crazy girls in this lifetime, but one day he found himself near Hinata to watch over her and make sure she didn't get into trouble, especially after the kidnapping attempt and Neji's sudden coldness towards her. She had been something like a little sister to him, even though he was supposed to hate her. She had reminded him of Bambi, the deer from the Disney movie, and it was his favorite Disney movie after Lion King (though he would take that secret to the grave; Bambi would _never_ be a favorite movie of someone of Uchiha lineage).

On the other, he would be forced to endure his brother's presence and his father's disapproving stare. It didn't seem like Sasuke would ever be able to get his father's approval for anything. Even the prospect of meeting two of his old friends couldn't overshadow the fact that he would be there with his parents and Itachi, doing rounds with them to network at a 14 year old girl's birthday party. How depressing.

On top of that, he met both Sakura and Itachi yesterday. Not that he had ever not wanted to see her, but the circumstances weren't exactly ideal.

After Sakura had left, Sasuke had gone up to his room to think about her and "them" and everything that happened after they stopped being a "them."

At one of the lowest moments of Sasuke's life, Sakura had been the only good thing he had going for him. He was fiercely protective of her and she had protected him on numerous occasions as well, like the first time they had met. She had somehow gotten to know him so well to the point that she could predict his thoughts and actions, decipher his facial expressions (or lack thereof), and interpret the "Uchiha-noises" that he made. She had been one of the few people he explicitly trusted with _everything_. And then he had to leave her.

He knew that it would hurt her and judging from what he had heard from their friends in Oto and how she had edged around him yesterday, he was right. He had felt terrible with his decision, but determined to see it through. Now he was doubting if the decisions he made, all of them, had been the right ones.

Soon after, his parents had come home sans one older brother. His mother had told him that he had gone back to his apartment to drop off his things and make sure everything was in order with his landlord before coming here. Sasuke wasn't sure what there was to discuss with the landlord that would take two hours, but sure enough, Itachi had shown up a little after 7 last night, just making it in time for dinner.

His father, of course, had focused all of his attention on his older brother and his stay in Ame. Itachi had graduated with top marks from Kyuumure last year and spent a year in Ame working alongside other engineers to get practical experience. Now, Itachi was back and attending Nimure for his MBA (Masters in Business Administration) to take over Sharingan when their father retired. Sasuke was also expected to attend Nimure in the future to manage his father's smaller companies outside of Konoha, though he wasn't sure if that was the route he wanted to take just yet.

Itachi was mostly quiet throughout dinner and only spoke up when their father had asked him a question. His mother was content that all three of her "favorite boys" were at the dinner table. When he was younger, it hadn't been difficult to get all of them to sit down together, but that changed as he grew older. His relationship with both his father and his brother were strained, though the two of them got along well. Sometimes, he felt as if his mother was his only ally in the household.

Once he had finished eating and stayed a respectable amount of time at the table, Sasuke excused himself to his room. It was then that he had learned that his presence would be required the following afternoon at the Hyuuga estate. After that, he had spent the rest of the evening in his room thinking about Sakura.

What was he going to do about Sakura?

* * *

When Konan first awoke, her first thought was something along the lines of, '_Am I in the living room? Why am I… oh.'_

Her next conscious thought had been, _'What is that smell?'_

With this, Konan sat up and looked around her to find the source of the smell. Haku was still curled up on the couch with the blanket pooled around his midsection, but there was no sign of Sakura.

Getting up slowly and quietly, Konan stood and moved towards the kitchen as it was emanating both intoxicating smells and soft noises. Once she reached the kitchen, she smiled when she saw Sakura busy making pancakes and bacon for (she hoped) her and Haku for breakfast.

"You know, as the guest you shouldn't be making breakfast for us."

Sakura jumped in surprise, not realizing that anyone else was awake, before turning around to face Konan with her hand over her heart.

"Konan-chan! You scared me!"

Konan approached the girl and looked around at the things Sakura had laid out. "Did you want any help? I'm no cook, but I know how to make eggs and toast. Or cereal," Konan said, smiling at the last part.

"Oh, if you want! I wasn't sure what you would like for breakfast, so I stuck with pancakes, bacon, and waffles."

Sure enough when Konan looked over Sakura's shoulder there was a stack of pancakes _and_ waffles sitting next to her waffle maker.

"I don't even know how you're awake this early," Konan said with a shake of her head. "I mean it's only… 10AM. And I thought _Sasori_ was an early riser. Must be a genetic thing."

Sakura laughed, not trying to deny what Konan said at all. "I know, but I can't help it. I can never sleep past 7AM, so I got up to cook instead! I was going to let you sleep for another 20 minutes before I woke the two of you up."

"Ah. I still think you're crazy. I'm going to wash up first then," Konan said before leaving.

Sakura got back to cooking, trying to make her pancakes into interesting shapes but ultimately failing. She really wanted some dinosaur-shaped pancakes too…

When she had first woken up, she hadn't been exactly sure what to do. It was too early for her to go back home (plus she didn't know what would be waiting for her), too early to shower with the fear of waking up the other two, and too early to cook breakfast. The only person who might be awake at this time would be her brother and Sakura decided to text him to pass the time.

**To**: Sasori  
**From**: Sakura  
Good morning, niisan! Did you miss me (:

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Sasori  
You're up early. I thought you'd be up later after your girl's night in.

**To**: Sasori  
**From**: Sakura  
I could say the same for you! What did you guys do last night?

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Sasori  
We went to the club with Hidan. They got drunk. Fun night.

**To**: Sasori  
**From**: Sakura  
Haha sounds like a great time! Ne, are we doing anything today?

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Sasori  
Nothing besides deal with everyone's hangovers. Be glad your brother doesn't drink. Did you want to do something today?

**To**: Sasori  
**From**: Sakura  
Naruto invited me to a family party later today. Is it ok if I go?

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Sasori  
Just don't stay out too late. I need to give you something before you leave so be sure to see me first.

**To**: Sasori  
**From**: Sakura  
Ok! Thanks, Sasori! Everyone's still sleeping so I'll be over later. So, tell me what happened yesterday!

Sasori began recounting the details of last night and withheld some of the more inappropriate things from his sister.

(_Wait, so did Deidara get lucky last night then? _It's Deidara. What do you think?)

(_Ew all over your car?_ Yes. I made Deidara clean it up, but Hidan will have to reupholster all the seats for me.)

(_Haha no way! Konan's going to be so angry!_ Shh we promised Yahiko not to tell anyone, especially her. He threw away all the phone numbers anyway.)

After some time, Sasori left to shower and get ready for the day, leaving Sakura with nothing to do. Again. So she snuck over to her bag to retrieve her iPod Touch and began playing games for about an hour until she heard her phone vibrate again. Thinking it was her brother again, Sakura went to check her messages, but instead of seeing Sasori's name, she saw Kimimaro's instead.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Kimimaro  
I'm glad. How's Konoha? Are you excited for school?

She and Kimimaro continued to text back and forth for a while before he left to wake up Jirobo and make food for everyone. The two had always been in charge of making food since Tayuya would probably do more harm than good in the kitchen and the other boys had no interest or experience cooking at all. Shortly after, Sakura got up to scour Konan's kitchen for ingredients she could use to make breakfast.

She passed up on the cereal (too easy) and the toast (not enough bread) to make pancakes, waffles, and some bacon for everyone instead.

When Sakura determined that there was enough food for the three of them, she placed everything on plates and brought them over to Konan's dining table. Next, she headed back into the living to wake up Haku. She had never been the type to need to rest for long periods of time since she usually stayed up late and woke up early, but figured that working at the restaurant all day yesterday had worn the boy out.

At first, Sakura tried shaking Haku's shoulder to wake him up, but only got a low murmur in response. She tried shaking him with a bit more force, but got the same result. Unsure if her next decision was entirely appropriate, but deciding to do it anyway, Sakura took a step back before jumping and pouncing on Haku with the intention of tickling the boy until he woke up.

Haku woke up with a start, trying to sit up but unable to with a weight pinning him down. Then he started struggling and gasping for breath between bouts of laughter against the similarly laughing Sakura.

"Oh Kami! Hahaha. Sakura! Sakura! Stop! Hahaha. I can't. Haha. Take it!"

Satisfied that Haku was _definitely_ awake, Sakura got off of the boy who was trying to regain his breath, walked back into the kitchen, and told him that breakfast was ready. Konan was standing at the kitchen doorway laughing at what she just witnessed. She was glad that she had woken up before Sakura got the chance to do _that_ to her.

"C'mon, let's eat!" Sakura called out to both Konan and Haku and went to grab silverware for them.

The three of them sat and ate the food that Sakura prepared and Haku had even told Sakura that she would be welcome to join the breakfast staff at the restaurant if she ever wanted a part time job. Sakura laughed and told him that she would consider it, but might burn a few eggs. Once they finished eating, Haku left to return to his apartment with Zabuza on the 5th floor and promised to come down more often to visit the two girls. Konan, not wanting Sakura to do any more work since she was the guest, refused to let Sakura do the dishes so Sakura sat at the table and talked to Konan who was washing the dishes.

Sakura was telling Konan what Sasori had told her about the boys' night yesterday, remembering to leave out Yahiko's dilemma at the bar so that he could tell his girlfriend himself, and they shared laughs at their expense. Afterwards, Sakura packed up her things and bid Konan a farewell as she made her way back to her apartment.

"Sasori-nii, I'm- what the heck happened here?"

When Sakura opened the door to the apartment, she hadn't been expecting to see three bodies lying haphazardly on the living room floor and for two thirds of those bodies to be half-naked. Yahiko was facing the couch with his back to Kisame and Hidan who were currently spooning. Kisame was the big spoon and Hidan the little spoon. There were clothes in piles around the three slumbering men as well as a trashcan in between Kisame and Yahiko. The living room didn't smell very pleasant either…

Sasori walked into the hallway when he heard Sakura's voice and carried towels and a bucket of water with him.

"Ah. I was hoping to be done with them before you came back. Deidara's making food in the kitchen if you want some."

Sakura never removed her eyes from the scene in the living room or the utterly perplexed expression from her face as she walked into the kitchen to request a sandwich from her favorite blonde.

She couldn't wait to hear what happened this time.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. Hidan and Kisame both got piss drunk."

Nod.

"And because they were both piss drunk, they couldn't very well be left alone for the night in case something happened."

Nod.

"Like the throwing up on themselves part."

Nod.

"Which they did anyway."

Nod.

"But Itachi, Kisame's roommate, didn't come home and Kisame didn't have his keys, so he stayed here with you two."

Nod.

"And then Kakuzu, Hidan's roommate, refused to let Hidan in because he was piss drunk."

Nod.

"So of course he had to stay here too."

Nod.

"And _both_ have the tendency of getting overly physical when drunk and that's why they were naked and spooning."

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And Yahiko was kicked out so he stayed here too and that's why the three of them were on the floor cuddling."

"We weren't _cuddling_!" Yahiko called out, very indignant that he was being lumped together with the other two.

Sakura turned her head to face Yahiko and looked at him with a very straight, unbelieving expression. "Right. Ok." She turned around to face Sasori and Deidara again to say, "I'm so, so, _so_ thankful that you didn't let one of them crash in my room. Kami knows what they would've done in there."

"Ah that reminds me. There's a present in your room, Sakura," her brother told her.

"Really?" Sakura asked, her eyes immediately jumping up to look at Sasori with an excited expression.

Sasori smiled at his sister's excitement and nodded his head.

Without another word, Sakura walked briskly into her room to find a small nicely wrapped silver box sitting on her bed. She went straight to her bed, grabbed the box, and shook it lightly to see if she could figure out what was inside.

Sasori leaned against her doorframe and watched as Sakura carefully unwrapped her gift. She had never been the child to wildly tear off wrapping paper, but had carefully peeled the paper back from where the tape held it instead. She was strangely meticulous about it.

When Sakura finished unwrapping her gift, she found herself looking at a small wooden box that held the insignia that she drew all those years ago etched on top. The box had been painted black and white curvy lines extended from the silver insignia. This must've been what he was working on yesterday.

"Sasori-nii… this is so nice! Thank you so much!"

"There's more. Open the box."

Sakura went ahead and pulled off the lid of the box. When she did, she saw the nicest and shiniest watch that she had ever seen. It was a brand new white Michael Korrs watch with little crystals embedded around the face. It looked like the face would glow in the dark too.

Sakura hadn't been able to say anything and continued to look at the watch with wide eyes. She had never gotten something as nice as this and she hadn't been expecting a gift since she was sure the apartment and the moving van had cost Sasori a lot already.

"Do you like it…?" Sasori had been unsure if Sakura would like this particular watch, but had bought it on Konan's advice. He kept the receipt in the event she wanted to return as well as to resize it to fit her wrist.

"Sasori-nii… I love it! Oh my gosh, this is so pretty! Wow, I hope I don't scratch it or anything. You're the best big brother _ever_!" Sakura squealed out and ran to hug her brother tightly.

"I'm glad you like it," Sasori told her, hugging her equally as tight.

"I have to go show it to Deidara! And Konan and Haku! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sasori!"

Sasori laughed, glad that Sakura was happy, and told her to go ahead and do what she needed to do while he took care of the men in the living room.

Sakura went ahead and took a shower to prepare for the rest of the day. She was definitely going to be wearing her brand new watch around every day from now on, along with the necklace Sasori had given her all those years ago.

Yep, Konoha was definitely better for her.

* * *

When Sasori walked out into the living room, he had mentally prepared himself to face the wrath of a hungover Kisame and Hidan. Hidan was tolerable despite his excessive cursing and being a religious zealot. However, a hungover Hidan cursed even _more _so (though Sasori didn't know how that was even possible), had a tendency to throw random objects at people's heads, be exceptionally demanding, and an overall douche bag. Or a bigger one than he usually was anyway. Kisame, on the other hand, just liked to growl and glare at people for being fortunate enough not to have a hangover and not be so sensitive to lights and sounds. The two were awful. He could already make out sounds of an argument between Hidan and Deidara.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Once Sakura was finished with her shower, she remembered that she had been invited to a party later that day and went to check her phone to see if Naruto messaged her back yet.

**To**: Sakura  
**From**: Naruto  
if you want i can pick you up! its gonna start at 6. rmbr to dress nice

Sakura already knew that she would decline Naruto's offer for a ride. In the event that she was out of his way, she didn't want to bother him. Plus, she would be able to leave when she wanted to without worrying about the boy.

**To**: Naruto  
**From**: Sakura  
It's ok, I can find my way there. Can you text me the address? How nice is "nice"?

Naruto texted her back shortly after with Hinata's address and told her something that didn't involve denim would be good enough. Maybe this Hinata liked to have "proper" parties instead of the casual ones she was used to back in Oto. Oh well, she could probably dig something decent enough out for one night. At least she didn't have to wear pants. She hated wearing pants.

She went to look at the time and saw that it was only 2PM, giving her 3 hours to do whatever she wanted before heading out. She decided to use the time to help her brother and Deidara outside. Kisame and Hidan didn't look so good earlier and she knew the perfect hangover remedy. Some nice greasy food, like ramen. With that in mind, Sakura braced herself and went outside to save them all from the headaches she knew they'd get.

'_Here goes nothing.'_

* * *

"Hey, Hinata-chan!"

"Dobe, can't you be a bit quieter? Geez," Sasuke said, already exasperated with his best friend's loud mouth. He had ditched his parents as soon as he spotted the blonde bundle of energy, not wanting to walk around and suck up to these businessmen and women. His brother could handle that.

There were various prominent business executives and their families walking around the Hyuuga grounds. There were the Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara heads as well as the future heirs Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru, respectively, though the former kept company with some other garishly dressed girls instead of the latter two. There was, of course, Hyuuga Hiashi from Byakugan along with Neji and Hinata. Hanabi wouldn't make an appearance until later. Naruto was here with his parents, Jiraiya and Tsunade. Even though they were not a part of the business elite, the two were highly respected amongst the executives here. Jiraiya was a decorated military veteran turn world-renown author. His partner had also been honored for her services as a field medic and now she was one of the most respected surgeons in the country. There were also other businessmen and women around, but none that Sasuke paid any particular attention to.

His father, ever the businessman, had told his associates and colleagues that Sasuke had been away for the past several years on a study abroad program instead of the truth: his son had run away one night and they had only recently found him and brought him back. In reality, his parents had gone overseas to visit their other companies and had left him in the care of his brother, who at the time was finishing his third year at Kyuumure and was studying for his final exams. Sasuke had been fed up with his family for ages now, with the exception of his mother, and his parents' absence gave him the opportunity to leave with the intention of never coming back.

He eventually wound up in Oto and started going by "Inari Sasuke", giving up his family name altogether. He only told his real name to a few people in Oto, Sakura and Hebi being those few. However, one night, a bunch of hired thugs cornered Hebi and demanded their presence in Ame on the orders of one Uchiha Itachi. Sasuke had refused and had refused the three next subsequent visits until Itachi played his final card: come here or I _will_ hurt your little pink-haired angel, dearest otouto He had always known his brother was a cruel individual, but he never thought Itachi would stoop this low. That had been when he broke up with her and disappeared.

Now, he was back in the business scene, annoying tie and all due to his brother's actions. Fantastic.

His father and brother were wearing suits, his father in grey and his brother in black, whereas he was wearing slacks and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. The standard suit and tie get-up was too suffocating for him. His mother had worn a kimono that was crimson at the bottom and slowly became black as it reached the red obi tied around her waist. The Uchiha matron only wore black and/or red outfits to these kinds of events.

Naruto, surprisingly, hadn't gone overboard with orange with his outfit and had worn black slacks, a white button-up, and (of course) an orange tie.

"Ah, good evening Naruto-kun, Sasuke," Hinata replied, her cheeks already reddening a bit and the urge to fiddle with her fingers flared up, but she tried to suppress it.

The Hyuuga heiress was wearing an orchid purple kimono with silver Sakura flowers spread throughout. Her obi was a darker purple and she wore her long purple hair in a neat bun.

"Oi, where's everyone else? Oh yeah, Hinata, I invited one of my friends too. Tell me if you see her. She has pink hair and she told me she was coming," Naruto told the girl, already turning round and round to see if he could spot her. She was new here and he wanted to make sure she would be OK.

'_Naruto-kun brought a girl?'_

Sasuke noticed Hinata's sad expression and sighed at his friend's stupidity. He would've thought that Naruto would figure it out by now, but he was still every bit of the idiot he had been before Sasuke left.

"She's an old childhood friend. She just moved here," added Sasuke to lessen the sadness set in Hinata's face.

Hinata gave Sasuke a small smile and nodded. She knew that Sasuke knew about her unrequited feelings. Sasuke had sort of looked after her as they were growing up. Their family's rivalries had put the two in close proximity to one another and instead of antagonizing her, Sasuke had mostly left her alone to her own devices or watched over her since she was so much smaller and weaker than he was. It wasn't in him to pick on those weaker than him. It was one of the things she liked best about the boy.

"Kiba-kun and Akamaru are playing by the pond. Shino-kun, Shikamaru, and Chouji are by the buffet table."

"Ah."

The three continued to talk (well, Naruto talked and they listened) and walked around the gardens. The Hyuuga prided themselves for the gardens that surrounded the main house for it was full of different fauna and different things for everyone to look at. As such, they almost always held their parties and events outside to showcase their gardens.

The Hyuuga estate was actually a long strip of road and surrounding land that they had bought to give themselves more privacy from the rest of the city. At the base of the road were homes for the "lesser" branch members of the Hyuuga family and going further up meant a higher position within the family until the main house was reached.

They met up with Shino, Shikamaru, and Chouji at the buffet table and they went to find Kiba at one of the Hyuuga ponds. The pond was actually on the side of the house and closer to the front than the back. Kiba and Akamaru were always the children's favorite company at these events where they were too young to talk business with their parents, but too old to hand off to a nanny to carry around all night. The friends were sitting near the pond at a large willow tree and supervising the kids when they all heard a loud and fast vehicle approaching.

Someone had driven up to the house on a dark motorcycle wearing a black helmet and… a dress? It was definitely a strange sight to see. People usually arrived in cars or limos instead of motorcycles. And certainly not wearing a _dress_ on a motorcycle.

The group of five now after Kiba went to prevent one of the boys from jumping in the pond and Chouji had gone for more food looked at the rider with curious expressions on their faces. _'Who on earth was that?'_

The rider took off her helmet and stared up at the large house in front of her in disbelief at the sheer size of it. It looked like a house that the _prime minister_ should have. No wonder Naruto told her to dress nicely.

Sakura had decided to wear a simple dress of blue and white. The skirt portion was made of white lace and the top portion was made of a sheer blue material with a Peter Pan collar. She paired it with a denim jacket (she assumed Naruto meant no denim _jeans_, but that denim _jackets_ would be fine) and black leather boots to protect her legs from the motorcycle. She had worn a slip under as well to prevent any perverts from trying to sneak a peek. And of course her new shiny watch and her necklace.

A young man with short dark hair and who was dressed nicely in a vest and slacks approached her, quite timidly in her opinion, to ask if she needed any help. She told the boy that she was here for the Hyuuga party and asked if there was a spot she could park her bike. He looked conflicted between scoffing at her for her unusual entrance and outfit and helping her direct her bike towards one side of the driveway. She shrugged it off, not really understanding what the boy's problem was and not wanting to offend anyone, and pulled her bike over.

As soon as she had the kickstand down, she heard a voice calling her name from further behind her. She placed her helmet on the seat of her bike and looked around to see a bright head of yellow waving at her. Knowing it was Naruto, she made her way over to where he and his friends were.

"Hey, Naruto. Sorry I'm late, I didn't realize how far away this place was," Sakura said, lying about the reason why she was nearly an hour late. She had gotten lost. Twice. But he didn't need to know that.

She looked around at the group of people sitting in front of her and they were looking at her with very different and weird expressions. Shikamaru was looking at her with a critical look on his face as if he was trying to figure something out. Naruto looked excited that she was here and curious, probably at what her definition of "nice" was. She didn't know who the other two were and couldn't tell what the boy was thinking with his sunglasses on anyway (_'Uh it's like 7PM. What do you need to wear sunglasses for?'_). The girl looked sort of scared of her like her fangs were about to come out and kill her or something. Then, there was Sasuke.

He wasn't looking at her at all. He was looking past her at something in the back. She hadn't known that he was going to be here and was trying to pretend as if it didn't matter either way. She couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed that he didn't even glance at her though.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, is that yours?" Naruto asked, pointing behind her at her bike.

"Oh, yeah. I got it when I passed my driving test. It's my baby," she replied happily with a grin, ignoring Sasuke's presence momentarily.

"That's so cool! Hey, can you teach me how to drive it? Or can you take me home later on it?" he asked, jumping up and down in excitement at the prospect of riding on the bike.

Sasuke let out a scoff at his friend's question and shifted his eyes to look at Sakura to say, "I wouldn't do it if I were you. He'd probably crash it before you turned on the ignition."

Naruto started yelling at Sasuke for saying such a thing because _that's not true, teme! I wouldn't crash it! You believe me right, Sakura?_

Sakura held Sasuke's eyes for a moment before looking at Naruto to tell him that she couldn't legally drive him around anyway since she was under 20 and she had only just gotten her license. She wouldn't be able to drive him for another six months. Naruto looked put off at her explanation but then cheered up to introduce her to his two other friends.

The boy, whose name she learned was Shino, reminded her of Sasuke when she first met him, minus the fighting and the blood. He was quiet, didn't say much, and was very reserved. He did not, however, have the whole Uchiha aura going on for him. Hinata, on the other hand, seemed to get over her initial fear and greeted Sakura with a bow. Having never dealt with this before, Sakura hurriedly went to bow to Hinata but hit her forehead on Hinata's head.

Sakura apologized profusely to the girl, cheeks red from the embarrassment, and to her surprise, Hinata was also blushing as she told the girl that it was quite all right; it had been an accident.

Hinata, acting on the manners that were instilled in her since birth, offered to show Sakura the grounds and take her to get some food. Sakura was thankful for her offer since she had never been here, tended to get lost easily, and was dreadfully hungry. Naruto almost invited himself to come along, but Sasuke prevented him from doing so with a quick, hard slap against his head and so the two girls walked away as the two boys began to bicker.

Hinata took Sakura on a brief tour of the more interesting and beautiful parts of the gardens (_Oh my god, is that a _panda_? Holy – can I touch it?_ Ah, I wouldn't recommend it. Yuki sometimes bites… _These koi fish are HUGE! What do you feed those guys? _Small children -giggle- _This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. _I agree. The firefly garden is my favorite too. _Is that a dojo?_ Yes, my father and uncles hold different classes in there for the children. _I have no idea how you even fit all of this into one backyard…_ Sometimes, I'm not sure either). Soon, a low growl was heard from the vicinity of Sakura's stomach. With red cheeks, Sakura sheepishly accepted Hinata's suggestion of heading towards the buffet table.

* * *

"Hey, where'd Hinata go?" Kiba asked, done with preventing any kids from taking an unexpected dive in the pond and simultaneously ignoring Naruto and Sasuke. Those two were _always_ fighting. It was like they were an old married couple. Geez.

"She took Sakura to look around and get food."

Kiba nodded at Shikamaru's answer, having not seen Sakura come or go but very much looking forward to seeing her.

* * *

"So, Sakura-san, Sasuke tells me that you just moved here. How do you like Konoha?"

"Oh, um, it's really nice. I lived here until I was four until I moved away. Your house is really pretty, Hinata-san. Especially the gardens!"

Hinata gave a small smile, the Hyuuga blood in her giving her a sense of fulfillment from the compliment. "Thank you, the gardeners work hard to maintain it."

"So do you go to Fire Academy too with them?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, all of us do. Where are you going to school, Sakura-san?"

"I'm actually starting there too on Monday. Maybe we'll be classmates," Sakura said with a small smile, hoping that this girl would accept her like Naruto's other friends had.

Hinata offered her a smile in return. "Yes, I'd like tha- ah!"

* * *

"Hey, guys?" Shikamaru suddenly asked, interrupting the two bickering boys and getting Shino's attention.

"Yeah, what?" Naruto asked as both boys shifted their attention to their other friend.

"Doesn't Ino usually bring Ami to these parties?"

'_Oh crap.'_

'_Shit.'_

'_How could I forget!'_

'_Damnit, this is gonna be bad.'_

* * *

A girl with asymmetrical purple hair clad in a short pale yellow and pink kimono had run into Hinata and pushed her back. If Sakura had slower reflexes, the girl would have fallen onto the ground instead of stumbling back into Sakura. Just as Sakura was about to ask Hinata if she was alright, the other girl spoke up in a nasty, shrill voice.

"Oh _no_, Hinata. Are you ok? I didn't even see you there. You're so small and blend into everything, you know?" the girl said with a sarcastic tone.

Sakura immediately picked up on the tone and looked at the other girl with narrowed eyes. _'She did that on purpose! The bitch!'_

"Oh, um, it's… it's ok, A-Ami. I, I wasn't watching w-where I was going," Hinata stuttered out in a small voice.

Sakura looked at Hinata in surprise. The girl had _obviously_ _tried_ to run Hinata over! Why wasn't she sticking up for herself? _'Ami? Hah, it couldn't be _that_ Ami could it? Oh, this was going to be good,'_ Sakura thought.

* * *

"Crap, guys, we have to go look for them!" Naruto yelled out, immediately jumping up and looking around wildly. "Ami used to pick on Sakura-chan too! Damnit, damnit!" He was clearly worried and anxious about his two friends, remembering the taunting that Ami used to inflict on Sakura. She always had it out for Sakura.

Sasuke and Kiba's attention perked at this. They hadn't known that Sakura used to be bullied and by none other than Watanabe Ami. The girl was cruel to a fault. She didn't mess with them – they were bigger, stronger, and _male_ – but they always had to make sure that Hinata wasn't left alone for her to prey on either.

"They said they were going to look around and get food. Shino, go west to Yuki's pen. Kiba, go north to the ponds. Naruto, go east to the gardens. I'll go check the dojo. Sasuke, check the area around the stage. If any of you find them, call everyone else. Got it?" Shikamaru said, laying out a plan to secure the girls. The other boys nodded and quickly left to go check their designated areas, intent on preventing Ami from doing anything to Hinata or Sakura.

'_You better be safe, Sakura.'_

* * *

"Humph, it's fine. Just don't let it happen again," she replied with a satisfied smirk and nose jutted slightly in the air. As she was about to turn and walk away, Sakura spoke up.

"Hey, don't pretend like you're the victim here, bitch. You ran into Hinata on purpose," Sakura called out before letting out a scoff. "I guess people never really change, do they?" Sakura stood slightly in front of Hinata facing Ami with a hand on one hip, weight to one side, and head cocked one way. She was going to make the bitch _eat her words._

* * *

Shino made his way to Yuki's pen area to find neither girl around. He approached a girl and a boy who were playing nearby and asked them if they had seen either girl. They told him that they were here a while ago, stating that _Yuki-chan almost ate pinky-oneechan when she tried to jump in the pen! Hinata-oneechan said to look at fishies instead._ He thanked them and headed towards the stage area where Sasuke was while calling Kiba to let him know that they had been headed towards the pond.

He, Kiba, and Hinata had been friends for as long as he could remember since their mothers had been friends when they were younger. The two boys had promised each other (_and_ their mothers) that they would always watch over Hinata. He couldn't let them down now. He had to find her.

* * *

"Ex_cuse_ me?" Ami cried out, snapping her head back to look at Sakura.

"You heard me. I think Hinata deserves a proper apology from you," Sakura shot back, not seeing Hinata's worrying glance darting back and forth between the two.

* * *

"Ok, thanks, Shino."

Kiba hung up on his best friend and looked frantically for a head of midnight purple or pink to no avail. He stopped a Hyuuga branch member and asked if he had seen the girls, but he shook his head and pointed towards the adjacent gardens.

Kiba took off as soon as the man pointed since they wouldn't be found here. He also headed towards the stage area and called Naruto, just shouting, "They're there!" before hanging up and quickening his pace.

He hoped one of the other boys had found them by now.

* * *

Ami scoffed, finally recognizing the girl under the pink hair and ignoring her demands for a "proper apology". "Well, look at what the _rats_ dragged back in: dear little Sakura. You're such a _sore sight_ after all this time," Ami said, still acting as if she was superior to all of them.

Sakura rolled her eyes and scoffed back. "Yeah, it's such a _dis_pleasure to be seeing your ugly face again, _Ami_."

The two girls stood in front of each other, stances tall and straight, ready for anything the other girl might do or say.

'_If she wants a fight, I'll give her a fight.'_

* * *

Naruto pulled his phone away from his ear at Kiba's yell. He had thought that the boy was calling to let him know that he found them, but they were apparently around here instead.

He looked around frantically before getting an idea: climb up the tree! Naruto quickly scaled a tree to get a better visual, but he still couldn't find them at all. Just when he was about to give up, someone started yelling at him from the bottom of the tree. He looked down to see the head gardener waving his arms around and telling him to _get out of the damn tree _this instant_, Uzumaki!_

Worried, he quickly jumped down to apologize and asked if the man had seen Hinata-chan or Sakura-chan. The man looked extremely upset and replied through gritted teeth that they had left the meadow not 10 minutes to go visit the dojo area.

Naruto apologized again to the gardener while walking backwards away from the man. He called Shikamaru to let his friend know that they would be there before booking it back.

Naruto mentally groaned and started imagining weird, impossible, fantastical scenes that would happen if Ami met Hinata or Sakura by themselves. When he imagined the two girls laying prone in the middle of a barren desert after the evil Ami had her dragon spit them out from his mouth, he ran even faster and yelled out, "Keep your nasty dragon fingers away from them, you scaly jerk!"

Onlookers had no idea what the heck the kid was smoking.

* * *

At this point, more people had started paying more attention to the three girls. Some were merely curious since Hinata, the Hyuuga heirses, was involved while others were wondering who the pink-headed girl was. Ami and Sakura were locked in a staring contest and Hinata tried her best to give (hopefully) reassuring smiles to the onlookers so that they would stop staring while hoping that the confrontation wouldn't escalate any further.

Then, Hinata's ears perked and heart dropped at the next words that came from Ami's mouth.

"I don't even know why you're sticking up for someone like _her_. You must not know her very well if you're with that kind of trash. She's just a loser that no one wants," Ami said with a sneer as she took a step closer to Sakura, not wanting the adults to hear what she was saying.

Hinata started trembling slightly at what Ami had said. She had always struggled with her self-esteem with all of the pressure, resentment, and disappointment that her family resonated around her. Ami had been a bully who recognized and preyed on it, often reminding Hinata that she _wasn't_ good enough, for anything. All she had ever been was a name and a face for the Hyuuga family. That's all she was worth. Take all of that away and she was nothing.

And she would never be more than that.

* * *

Shikamaru cursed, looking around at the obviously closed buildings. Hiashi-sama probably didn't want to deal with any kids running around his prized dojo's. There was no way that Hinata would take Sakura inside to take a look around. She had a fear of being in there at night, especially after what happened all those years ago.

As soon as he realized that they wouldn't be here, he spun around to head back and called the other boys to tell them to go to the center area or the buffet table to look for them.

'_Why are girls so damn troublesome…'_

* * *

"You know what, Ami? You're right," Sakura said, surprising both Hinata and Ami. The former was surprised that Sakura could be just as heartless as Ami whereas the latter was surprised that she had won over Sakura so easily.

Ami let out a small laugh and replied, "Well of course I am. I'm _always_ right."

Hinata looked at the back of Sakura's head in dismay. Had the girl that she just met already realized how useless she was already? Had this person that she wanted to call friend just betrayed her?

Sakura shook her head down at the ground and gave a small laugh as well. "Well, half-right anyway," she said, looking up and staring straight in Ami's eyes.

"Oh?" she asked, eyebrow quirked.

"Yeah," Sakura replied, walking closer to Ami as she had done earlier. "You see, I _don't_ know Hinata very well. I just met her today. But I sure as hell know that she's a _hundred_ times the woman that you ever were or ever will be. Don't be angry that she's better than you in _every. Single. Way_," she ended, now inches away from the other girl.

Once again, the other two girls were surprised at what Sakura had said. Neither girl, for different reasons, could believe that Sakura was defending Hinata so readily and easily. She didn't even care that the one she was defending Hinata to was Watanabe Ami.

The two girls now stood there, one with a defiant look in her eyes and the other with an angry glare.

Hinata held her breath at what Ami would do next. _'What is she going to do now?'_

* * *

Sasuke had already been to the buffet table, but only found Chouji there. He asked Chouji if they had been by only to receive a negative answer. When Chouji asked what was wrong, Sasuke only had to say, "Watanabe Ami" for Chouji to understand why the normally straight-faced boy looked so worried. Then, Shikamaru called Sasuke to tell him that the girls were most likely somewhere around him. With this, the two boys quickly set out to find them.

'_I am going to _kill_ Ami if she does anything.'_

* * *

Suddenly, Ami smiled sardonically at Sakura and leaned in towards her to whisper something in her ear.

"You know, Sakura, you're going to regret saying that to me. Ino isn't around to protect your pathetic little ass anymore and I am going to make sure that you wished you never came back here," Ami promised, all the while retaining her evil bitch smile.

* * *

'_Oh thank Kami I found them.'_

'_Crap, she found them first.'_

'_Damnit, what is she doing so close to Sakura-chan?'_

'_Ugh, so troublesome.'_

'…_Shit.'_

All they could make out were the two girls standing close to one another. Ami leaning towards Sakura to whisper something in her ear with a smug smile on her face while Sakura kept the same "come at me, bro" look on hers. At one point, Sakura's lips quirked up into a smirk and she turned her head to whisper something back into Ami's ear. Ami's face had gone from the triumphant smile to wide eyes of terror to outright anger at whatever Sakura was saying. None of them could make it out, but whatever it was, it seemed to have hit a nerve with Ami and they could honestly say that she deserved it – all of it.

* * *

Sakura turned her head slightly to her left to put her mouth to Ami's ear to say, "I could say the same for you. I can fight my own battles and I'm not going to need any help when it comes to you. Ino won't be able to stop me from _beating your ugly face black and blue_. Leave my friends alone or I promise you'll be the one who will regret starting this. I'm not going to be your little ragdoll anymore so you best step back before I hurt you. Bitch."

With that, Sakura straightened her posture, smiled over at Ami's angry visage, hooked her arm around Hinata's, and walked away.

Ami had been surprised at Sakura's threat. _That_ wasn't the same cowering, scared girl she used to pick on, her favorite pink punching bag. If Ami hadn't changed from her days as a bully, then Sakura definitely changed from her days as a victim. Ami stopped glaring and looked around at the people who were still looking at her and/or Sakura with curious expressions. She caught sight of some of Hinata's bodyguards standing around staring after the other two girls and scowled before remembering that she was in public. She then let out a winning smile and left, intent on finding Ino and letting her know what just happened. Ino might have been friends with Sakura once, but Ami had seen to it that the girl would be on _her_ side now – the winning, popular side. They were going to bring Haruno Sakura _down_.

* * *

Hinata was nothing less than utterly shocked at what Sakura had just done and said for her. Ami had picked on her since they were mere children and showed no sign of ever letting up on the torture. Most of the adults were fooled by Ami's smile or chose to ignore her actions altogether. Only the other students really knew the extent of Ami's malignant streak and few chose to stand up to the girl anymore. Sure, she had the boys protecting her, but they never did anything to Ami as much as they made sure that she wasn't alone with Ami. She was thankful for it, but it only made Ami more creative and determined in cornering her.

Yet, here was this girl that she literally met maybe 30 minutes ago who told off one of the biggest bullies of her _life_ without so much as a twitch or a sign of discomfort. She even told Ami that she, _Hinata_, was better than her! She couldn't even begin to thank the girl for the faith, even if she thought it was misplaced. There was no doubt in her mind that she was doing a little hero worship right now for Sakura.

That had been _awesome_.

* * *

Sakura briskly walked away with pride that she basically verbally decimated the biggest terror of her four-year-old life. She had even been excited to do it. Bitch thinks that she can mess with Haruno Sakura? Then she got another thing coming to her.

She slowed down a bit after remembering that she was dragging Hinata through the grass and probably ruining her kimono before stopping altogether at the sound of their names.

"Sakura-chan! Hinata-chan! Are you two ok?" Naruto shouted at their faces, grabbing Sakura's then Hinata's shoulders to make sure they weren't bleeding anywhere.

Neither girl knew that the boys had seen the confrontation with Ami and while Hinata was trying not to pass out in the middle of her sister's birthday party, Sakura looked over at Naruto with a skeptical expression.

"Of course we are. It's not like the panda is all of a sudden going to pop out and start terrorizing the place," Sakura responded, still bitter that she didn't get a chance to pet or ride the panda. She didn't know that pandas had such sharp teeth…

"…What?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded what Yuki had to do with anything.

"Man, he meant are you two ok after talking to Ami," Shikamaru explained, sighing all the while, but still very much worried about them.

"Oh. Yeah, we're fine," Sakura answered, surprised that they had seen that. "We were, ah, just catching up."

Despite Sakura's attempts to reassure them, all six boys saw the way that Sakura's smile turned into a smirk and all of them were unsure what that smirk meant. She then retrieved Hinata from Naruto's grasp, noticing that her face was pale and her eyes were unfocused, before announcing that they were _going to get something to eat, are you going to join us or not?_ With that, the group of eight headed towards the buffet table following Sakura and Hinata's leads.

Sasuke followed at a slower pace behind them, thinking back on the smirk that Sakura had shown them. He knew Sakura and he knew what that smirk meant. She was excited at the prospect of a fight. She was _not_ going to keep a low profile here.

'_Geez the girl's been here, what, 3 days now and already starting trouble. Just like old times,'_ Sasuke thought, shaking his head at what he knew was going to happen once school started. It's like Sakura couldn't go a day without some sort of fight or altercation.

Oh well, that's why he liked her in the first place.

* * *

A/N:

Song: Brooke Valentine ft Big Boi and Lil' Jon – Girl Fight

26/07/12

edit: 06/08/12


End file.
